SEVENTY DOLLARS. 281 



patch, and broke her to saddle. She wouldn't "rack/' 

 she wouldn't "lope," she wouldn't "fox trot," nor "run- 

 ning walk," but she would trot and wouldn't do anything 

 else. Of course, that didn't constitute a saddle horse 

 from a Kentuckian's standpoint, and as a result her du- 

 ties were confined to the plow most of the time as the 

 "off" horse, her companion on the "lead" side being a 

 superannuated and good-natured mule ; and for the boys 

 to ride to school and go "sky-larking" on in the evenings. 

 The neighboring boys all having saddle horses that could 

 'saddle," of course, friendly racing was a common prac- 

 tice, and it soon came to pass that the trotting bred fillv 

 could more than hold her own and beat anything on 

 'Cat's Fork or Bain" Creek; but she went on a trot while 

 her competitors went at the gallop and ran for their lives 

 too. 



A saddle-horse dealer of many years' experience, 

 scouring the mountain regions on one of his buying pere- 

 grinations, heard of the phenomenon, and on telling a 

 trotting horse friend, was commissioned to buy her on his 

 next trip, which he did, paying the enormous sum of 

 seventy dollars as a consideration. She was taken to a 

 place where she had a chance to wear a harness and be 

 hitched to a light-wheeled vehicle, and she could simply 

 burn up the road. As her old buyer said : "I done 

 bought that thar mar for you, sah, for seventy dollas, and 

 dog on my cats she's worth seven thousand any whar on 

 the face of the vearth." 



Unless a starter can inspire confidence, he is working 

 outside his mission. 



