24 THE BEGINNING. 



down and so far as appearances went, seemed to know 

 as much about road work as the man who was driving 

 her, and that was saying considerable. Before night 

 those who had not seen the gray had heard of her and 

 when the evening session opened the talent voted to 

 buy a whisk broom and send it over to the barn, as it 

 might come in handy to brush off the white hairs and 

 the snow balls which were looming up in the future. 

 All of this was done the following day, and when the 

 cronies came together again for a smoke and a talk 

 their messenger told them that their gift was accepted 

 and that word was also sent to them that if they did 

 not keep their eye on Nelly Gray — that was the mare's 

 name — their pocketbooks would not need dusting 

 when she began to shed her coat. When Hi Hopkins 

 was told about this the next day I thought he would 

 die laughing, but he and his friends survived until 

 race week. 



"As none of you were ever at an old style winter 

 meeting I will give you an idea as to how the business 

 is conducted. A week or two before the meeting three 

 or four teams are hitched to a big snow plow and sent 

 down the river to make the track. They scrape four 

 or five paths, the number depending on the width of 

 the river or the probable number of starters. Each 

 competitor in these races had a track to himself, the 

 snow that covered it being shoved into a mound ex- 

 tending from one end of the course to the other. In 

 Nelly Gray's year the finish was about a mile below 

 the town near the mouth of a little bay where the boys 

 gathered water lilies and killed frogs during the sum- 

 mer months. From this point it bore off to the left 

 and after a straight strip of river for about half a mile 



