this condition they started to run. They raced side 

 by side for a short distance until they came to a tree, 

 then there was trouble, and I must confess that my 

 inherited love for educating and training animals to 

 drive received a severe shock, which came near 

 dampening all the ardor which I possessed, as one calf 

 passed to the right and the other to the left of that 

 tree, and it did not require the wisdom of a philoso- 

 pher to see that either the tree or the tails must give 

 way, and it did not take long to determine the winner, 

 as the smaller calf emerged from the contest minus 

 about two feet of his tail, and bleeding as though his 

 life would ebb away right then and there; and when 

 I contemplated the awful consequences that would 

 surely come should this result be the crowning effort 

 of my first attempt in starting up the pathway I 

 hoped some day to follow, my blood was nearly frozen 

 with fear ; but the calf finally recovered and they grew 

 to be a fine yoke of oxen, and I spent many happy 

 hours driving them. After they had grown up I 

 traded them to my father for a two-year-old colt, 

 worth about $50. I took extra care of him and soon 

 had him thoroughly broken and looking well. 



One of the first pleasures in which the farmers and 

 people in the country districts of Tennessee indulged 

 after the war was in holding local or county fairs, and 

 for many years thereafter this custom was, and to 

 some extent still is, observed in most of the counties 

 in the middle and western part of the State ; and 

 while the facilities for exhibiting stock, etc., and for 

 giving races at these fairs were, and are, inferior to 

 those in some of the other parts of the country, yet 

 they have undoubtedly been of material benefit in 

 helping to raise the standard of all live-stock interests. 



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