de, so I was told, but I don't know of my own knowin'.'

"'Don't you ride?' she says. 'Hossback?' I says. 'Why, of course,' she
says. '_No_, ma'am,' I says, 'not when I c'n raise the money to pay my
_fine_' She looked kind o' puzzled at that," remarked David, "but I see
the other girl look at her an' give a kind of quiet laugh."

"'Can I see him?' says Miss Claricy. 'Cert'nly,' I says, an' went an'
brought him out. 'Oh!' she says to her sister, 'ain't he a beauty? C'n I
try him?' she says to me. 'Wa'al,' I says, 'I guess I c'n resk it if you
can, but I didn't buy him fer a saddle hoss, an' if I'm to own him fer
any len'th of time I'd ruther he'd fergit the saddle bus'nis, an' in any
case,' I says, 'I wouldn't like him to git a sore back, an' then agin,'
I says, 'I hain't got no saddle.'

"'Wa'al,' she says, givin' her head a toss, 'if I couldn't sit straight
I'd never ride agin. I never made a hoss's back sore in my life,' she
says. 'We c'n change the saddle,' she says, an' off she jumps, an', scat
my ----!" exclaimed David, "the way she knowed about gettin' that saddle
fixed, pads, straps, girt's, an' the hull bus'nis, an' put up her foot
fer me to give her a lift, an' wheeled that hoss an' went out o' the
yard a-kitin', was as slick a piece o' hoss bus'nis as ever I see. It
took fust money, that did," said Mr. Harum with a confirmatory shake of
the head. "Wa'al," he resumed, "in about a few minutes back she come,
lickity-cut, an' pulled up in front of me. 'C'n you send my sister's
hoss home?' she says, 'an' then I sha'n't have to change agin. I'll stay
on _my_ hoss,' she says, laughin', an' then agin laughin' fit to kill,
fer I stood there with my mouth open clear to my back teeth, not bein'
used to doin' bus'nis 'ith quite so much neatniss an' dispatch, as the
sayin' is.

"'Oh, it's all right,' she says. 'Poppa came home last night an' I'll
have him see you this afternoon or to-morro'.' 'But mebbe he 'n I won't
agree about the price,' I says. 'Yes, you will,' she says, 'an' if you
don't I won't make his back sore'--an' off they went, an' left me
standin' there like a stick in the mud. I've bought an' sold hosses to
some extent fer a consid'able number o' years," said Mr. Harum
reflectively, "but that partic'ler transaction's got a peg all to
itself."

John laughed and asked, "How did it come out? I mean, what sort of an
interview did you have with the young woman's father, the popular Mr.
Verjoos?"

"Oh," said