lash and spur as a frisky young colt. The gypsy said he had paid two
hundred for him, but, as he was anxious to get to his sick wife in
Atlanta, he would make it a hundred and fifty and be thankful that he'd
made one man happy. The old man was his meat. He told him he only had a
hundred and twenty-five, and--well, the gypsy was a smooth article. He
wanted to get his eye on the cash. He said a whole lot about havin' had
counterfeit money paid to him, an' that he had to be careful, and with
that Pa went to the house and got the money and spread it out before the
skunk to prove that it was all right. And in that way the chap got his
hands on it. He shed some tears as he put it into his pocket. Pa said he
kissed the hoss square betwixt the eyes and rubbed him on the nose and
went away with his head hanging down."

"I catch on," the clerk broke in, deeply interested; "it was stolen
property, and your Pa had to give 'im up."

"No, the titles was all right," Henley answered, dryly. "The time come
when Pa would have greeted any claimant with open arms. The hoss had the
disease traders call 'big shoulders.' I was a mile or two off when the
calamity fell, but somebody told me Pa'd bought a hoss, and I come home
as fast as I could. I found Ma and Pa out in the stable-yard, and he was
fairly chattering over his wonderful bargain, and what a kind heart the
gypsy had. Pa saw me and grinned from ear to ear.

"'Say, Alf,' he said, 'you are always making your brags about knowing
hoss-flesh; what do you think of this prince of the turf?'

"I walked round in front of the animal to size him up, and my heart sunk
'way down in my boots. 'Pa,' I said, 'it looks to me like he's got "big
shoulders."'

"'Big nothing!' Pa said; but when he stood in front and took a squint I
saw him turn pale. 'Big shoulders, a dog's hind-foot!' he grunted, and
he was so mad at me that he could hardly talk. He put the hoss in a
stall and jowered at me all that evening, and at the supper-table he
clean forgot to ask the blessing. The more he feared I was right the
worse he got, till Ma had to call him to order by putting the family
Bible in his lap and making him read and pray. I couldn't help laughing,
as serious as it was; for while we was on our knees the thought struck
me that he ought to ask the Lord to bless that gypsy and restore his
wife to health. Well, I was right. Early the next morning, after a good
night's rest and plenty of water and feed, we foun