SWAPPING HORSES AND HORSE JOCKEY TRICKS. 299 



acquisition, exclaimed : " Why, that is the old horse ; 



didn't you know him ? "Well, you ought to, for he has been 

 owned on the next farm to you for upwards of twenty years ! " 



On being thoroughly convinced that this was the case, the 

 old horse was again for sale, and found the same purchaser 

 again at the same price — $10 — only in this case the price paid 

 was in barter and amounted to $12, while in the first instance 

 it was $10 in cash. 



I once had an old friend (who was also a relative by mar- 

 riage) who, for a farmer, was quite a trader in live stock and 

 used to enjoy trading horses. "While not an expert in this line, 

 he was a pretty good judge of such animals, had good naturaL 

 ability, and understood himself pretty well. Consequently, I 

 think he about held his own in the horse department of his 

 business. I remember, when visiting him on one occasion, of 

 his telling me of several quite smart and shrewd, as well as 

 profitable, horse trades made by himself; whereupon I re- 

 marked that I should suppose after making so many good 

 trades he would be able to build a new barn on his farm, as I 

 knew he needed one sadly, and I had often heard him express 

 a desire to have one, but claimed that he was unable, finan- 

 cially, to build. 



" "Well, John," says the' old man, " I have been telling you 

 of the good trades only, as they are all I care to remember." 



I once " swapped " off a horse because he was too slow for 

 me. I traded with a jockey, and got one that proved to be as 

 much too fast as the other was too slow, inasmuch as I had not 

 owned her more than a week before she, in a running fit, took me 

 over my fields on a hay-rake much faster than I cared to travel. 



Of course I was then ready to trade with another jockey 

 for a slower one. The fools were not all dead then — neither 

 do I believe they are now, for that matter. "When I had been 

 swindled the worst and felt the most like giving up trying to 

 have anything more to do with horse trading, there was usually 

 some " smart Aleck " ready to come forward and relieve me of 

 that which was causing me to feel so blue. 



