ylor.

After breakfast Uncle Eb and I hitched him to the light buggy and
touched him up for a short journey down the road. In five minutes he had
begun to heave and whistle. I felt sure one could have heard him half a
mile away. Uncle Eb stopped him and began to laugh.

'A whistler,' said he, 'sure's yer born. He ain't wuth a bag o' beans.
But don't ye never let on. When ye git licked ye musn't never fin'
fault. If anybody asks ye 'bout him tell 'em he's all ye expected.'

We stood waiting a moment for the horse to recover himself. A team was
nearing us.

'There's Bob Dean,' Uncle Eb whispered. 'The durn scalawag! Don't ye say
a word now.

'Good-mornin'!' said Dean, smiling as he pulled up beside us.

'Nice pleasant mornin'!' said Uncle Eb, as he cast a glance into the
sky.

'What ye standin' here for?' Dean asked.

Uncle Eb expectorated thoughtfullyy.

'Jest a lookin' at the scenery,' said he. 'Purty country, right here!
AIwus liked it.'

'Nice lookin' hoss ye got there,' said Dean.

'Grand hoss!' said Uncle Eb, surveying him proudly. 'Most reemarkable
hoss.'

'Good stepper, too,' said Dean soberly.

'Splendid!' said Uncle Eb. 'Can go a mile without ketchin' his breath.'

'Thet so?' said Dean.

'Good deal like Lucy Purvis,' Uncle Eb added. 'She can say the hull
mul'plication table an' only breathe once. Ye can learn sumthin' from a
hoss like thet. He's good as a deestric' school--thet hoss is.'

Yes, sir, thet hoss is all right,' said Dean, as he drove away.

'Righter'n I expected,' Uncle Eb shouted, and then he covered his mouth,
shaking with suppressed laughter.

'Skunk!' he said, as we turned the animal and started to walk him home.
'Don't min' bein' beat, but I don't like t' hev a man rub it in on me.
I'll git even with him mebbe.'

And he did. It came about in this way. We turned our new purchase into
the pasture, and Uncle Eb and I drove away to Potsdam for a better
nag. We examined all the horses in that part of the country. At last we
chanced upon one that looked like the whistler, save that he had a white
stocking on one hind foot.

'Same age, too,' said Uncle Eb, as he looked into his mouth.

'Can pass anything on the road,' said his owner.

'Can he?' said Uncle Eb, who had no taste for slow going. 'Hitch him up
an' le's see what he can do.'

He carried us faster than we had ever ridden before at a trot, and
coming up behind another team the man pulled out, let the reins loose on