372 CHAMP. 



her that Mary Pickle's little finger was worth Lem's 

 whole carcass. That staggered her. She was so 

 mad, that she bit her finger nails and with a toss of 

 head and a sniff that made the horses in the stalls 

 jump, she wheeled right about face and marched out 

 of the barn. In an hour or so, a man from Riley's 

 stable came in with an order signed Helen Jenkins 

 for Lemuel's horse and buggy. He got it. From 

 that day, my sister would go round a block to keep 

 from meeting me. I also learned that the same after- 

 noon, she called at Mrs. Pickles and forbade Mary, 

 in the presence of her mother, to go out walking or 

 driving with 'her boy.' Mrs. Pickle was too much 

 of a lady to make a scene, and the visit came to an 

 end without Mary saying whether she would or not. 



"When Lem heard of the didos that his mother 

 had been cutting up in the village, there was a scene. 

 I do not know what happened when he met her, but 

 he told me that night, he was going to marry Mary 

 Pickle, if she would have him. When I heard him 

 make the remark, it sounded strange, and as he 

 walked out of the barn whistling, says I to myself, 

 T don't think you will/ 



"That evening I called at Mrs. 'Pickle's and the 

 next evening I called at the same place. The fol- 

 lowing evening, I took Mary Pickle out for a drive 

 behind Champ, and she was delighted with him. 

 You have an idea what a moonlight night in Sep- 

 tember is like. Well, it was one of them, and I 

 thought she never would stop admiring that horse. 

 After I had brushed him down a flat piece of road, 

 she made me stop so she could get out and have a 

 better look at him. Then she asked me to go up the 



