that showed some speed at the trot. I bought him 

 for $125, and at this time I also bought an old high- 

 wheel sulky with springs, weighing about no pounds, 

 for which I paid $15, and with this outfit I deemed 

 myself fully equipped to commence preparations for 

 winning some harness races. But there was no race 

 track in that section, and a race track I must have 

 upon which to educate my promising campaigner ; 

 and, having heard that necessity was the mother of 

 invention, I proceeded as best I could to construct a 

 track, but as I never had seen a regulation track and 

 knew nothing of the procedure necessary to employ in 

 its construction, the affair that resulted from my 

 efforts was not such a one as Seth Griffin would ap- 

 prove. I selected the top of a hill as a site, then tak- 

 ing as long a rope as I could find I staked one end to 

 the ground and at the other end of it drove a stake, 

 then swung around in a circle, sticking stakes at dif- 

 ferent places. Then I plowed up a space wide enough 

 for me to drive, and when completed the track was 

 about one-third of a mile long, and so irregular and 

 crude that a horse would be justified in going any 

 kind of a gait to get over it, and I have often 

 thought I was exceedingly lucky in being able to 

 remain in the sulky while driving over its rough and 

 irregular surface. I was then attending school and 

 the only time I could get to devote to the construc- 

 tion of the track was out of school hours and on 

 Saturdays. At this time I was beset with troubles 

 and difficulties that for a time threatened to crush 

 my ambition, as my parents were greatly opposed 

 to my devoting my life to training horses, and 

 my father greatly desired my assistance in the store 

 and wished me to pursue a mercantile life ; and it was 



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