n brought for inspection, and there was a repetition of
previous horrors. At last a man came from Mossgrown. He had an honest
face; he knew of a man who knew of a man whose brother had just <i>the</i>
horse for me, "sound, stylish, kind, gentle as a lamb, fast as the
wind." Profiting by experience, I said I would look at it. Next day, a
young man, gawky and seemingly unsophisticated, brought the animal. It
looked well enough, and I was so tired. He was anxious to sell, but
only because he was going to be married and go West; needed money. And
he said with sweet simplicity: "Now I ain't no jockey, I ain't! You
needn't be afeard of me--I say just what I mean. I want spot cash, I do,
and you can have horse, carriage, and harness for $125 down." He gave me
a short drive, and we did go "like the wind." I thought the steed very
hard to hold in, but he convinced me that it was not so. I decided to
take the creature a week on trial, which was a blow to that guileless
young man. And that very afternoon I started for the long, pleasant
drive I had been dreaming about since early spring.

The horse looked quiet enough, but I concluded to take my German
domestic along for extra safety. I remembered his drawling direction,
"Doan't pull up the reins unless you want him to go pretty lively," so
held the reins rather loosely for a moment only, for this last hope
wheeled round the corner as if possessed, and after trotting, then
breaking, then darting madly from side to side, started into a full run.
I pulled with all my might; Gusta stood up and helped. No avail. On we
rushed to sudden death. No one in sight anywhere. With one Herculean
effort, bred of the wildest despair, we managed to rein him in at a
sharp right angle, and we succeeded in calming his fury, and tied the
panting, trembling fiend to a post. Then Gusta mounted guard while I
walked home in the heat and dirt, fully half a mile to summon John.

I learned that <i>that</i> horse had never before been driven by a woman. He
evidently was not pleased.

Soon the following appeared among the local items of interest in the
Gooseville Clarion:

Uriel Snooks, who has been working in the cheese factory at
Frogville, is now to preside over chair number four in Baldwin's
Tonsorial Establishment on Main Street.

Kate Sanborn is trying another horse.

These bits of information in the papers were a boon to the various
reporters, but most annoying to me. The Bungtown