ay all expenses, he was to draw on her for more.
Peter took the opportunity to get rid of a horse he had no use for in
winter; a beast restive as a racer when not in daily use, but strong
enough for any work, and steady enough if he had work. Two hundred and
fifty dollars was the price now set on his head, though Peter had bought
him for seventy-five, and thought him dear at that. The remaining fifty
was ample for expenses; but Peter was a prudent German and liked a
margin. There was no difficulty in getting the horse as far as Martin's,
and by dint of patient insistence Peter contrived to have him conveyed
to Bartlett's; but here he rested and sent a messenger down to Scott
Peck, while he himself returned to Bridget at the farm, slowly cursing
the country and the people as he went his way, for his delays and
troubles had been numerous.

"Gosh!" said Scott Peck, when he stepped up to the log-house that served
for the guides, unknowing what awaited him, for the messenger had not
found him at home, but left word he was to come to Bartlett's for
something, and the first thing he saw was this gray horse.

"What fool fetched his hoss up here?"

The guides gathered about the door of their hut, burst into a loud
cackle of laughter; even the beautiful hounds in their rough kennel
leaped up and bayed.

"W-a-a-l;" drawled lazy Joe Tucker, "the feller 't owns him ain't
nobody's fool. Be ye, Scotty?"

"Wha-t!" ejaculated Scott.

"It's your'n, man, sure as shootin'!" laughed Hearty Jack, Joe Tucker's
brother.

"Mine? Jehoshaphat! Blaze that air track, will ye? I'm lost, sure."

"Well, Bartlett's gone out Keeseville way, so't kinder was lef' to me to
tell ye. 'Member that ar chap that shot hisself in the leg down to your
shanty this summer?"

"Well, I expect I do, seein' I ain't more'n a hundred year old,"
sarcastically answered Scott.

"He's cleared out South-aways some'eres, and his ma consaited she was
dredful obleeged to ye; 'n I'm blessed if she didn't send an old Dutch
feller up here fur to fetch ye that hoss fur a present. He couldn't
noways wait to see ye pus'nally, he sed, fur he mistrusted the' was
snows here sometimes 'bout this season. Ho! ho! ho!"

"Good land!" said Scott, sitting down on a log, and putting his hands in
his pockets, the image of perplexity, while the men about him roared
with fresh laughter. "What be I a-goin' to do with the critter?" he
asked of the crowd.

"Blessed if I know," answered