CHAPTER VIII. 



SCENES ON THE ROAD. 



FOR the first week of our ride the weather was sul- 

 try, and occasional thunder-showers, and some- 

 times dismal rainy days, contributed to the discomforts 

 of both horses and riders. Green-head horse-flies 

 attacked Texas and his companion by the hundreds ; 

 and their ravenousness was intensified by the stormy 

 character of the weather to such a degree that nothing 

 but a blow would cause them to relinquish their hold. 

 Texas, being a peculiarly thin-skinned and particular 

 sort of animal, danced and capered along, kicking, 

 striking, and biting at them every step of the way, the 

 very picture of equine misery. Occasionally he con- 

 sidered himself worried to a point that would justify 

 him in lying down in the road and rolling, regardless 

 of the fact that a human being was in the saddle ; and 

 he would pause and impudently essay a certain signifi- 

 cant and time-honored movement of the~legs, peculiar 

 to his tribe, preliminary to carrying out this heroic 

 method of ridding himself of his tormentors. 



Perhaps it was owing to the flies, but along these 

 early stages of the journey he developed a remarkable 

 fondness for sidling up against Sascha's horse and en- 

 deavoring to persuade that more sedate animal to halt 

 and permit him to rub himself against him as against 

 a tree or fence. Finding these cajolings of no avail, 



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