48 THE HORSE 



a great respect for her teeth and heels. In due 

 time, however, he returned her " nicely broken," 

 as he said. But having, in some remote corner 

 of his make-up, something which he probably con- 

 sidered a conscience and, possibly unwilling for 

 the carpenter to die unwarned, he added that 

 " when you use her, you want to look out sharp, 

 for there's lots of gimp in her." 



Had the carpenter been more familiar with the 

 delicate circumlocutions of the " profession," he 

 might have guessed the truth; as it was, he inti- 

 mated that no amount of " gimp " was too much 

 for him and announced that the next day he was 

 going to " give the natives a surprise party." 

 He did. No sooner had he got his filly hooked up 

 and taken his seat on the gig than she started to 

 run and kick. The carpenter hurled himself out 

 backward, as the quickest way of quitting the com- 

 bination, and the gig was soon a mass of kindling 

 wood. When the filly was caught, nearly a mile 

 away, she had divested herself of every strap of 

 harness, even of the bridle — " kicked herself stark 

 naked " as the carpenter told me — a performance 

 as extraordinary as it was immodest. 



This episode and the fact that the filly had 

 things all her own way seemed to rouse all the 

 latent devil in her nature. She was like a fiend 

 incarnate and bit and kicked to such an extent 



