acted. I done
my turn, an' I'm none o' Barnum's crowd; but any horse dat's worked on
de Belt four years don't train wid no simple child o' nature--not by de
whole length o' N' York."

"But can it be possible that with your experience, and at your time of
life, you do not believe that all horses are free and equal?" said the
yellow horse.

"Not till they're dead," Muldoon answered quietly. "An' den it depends
on de gross total o' buttons an' mucilage dey gits outer youse at Barren
Island."

"They tell me you're a prominent philosopher." The yellow horse turned
to Marcus. "Can you deny a basic and pivotal statement such as this?"

"I don't deny anythin'," said Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, cautiously;
"but ef you ast me, I should say 'twuz more different sorts o' clipped
oats of a lie than anythin' I've had my teeth into sence I wuz foaled."

"Are you a horse?" said the yellow horse.

"Them that knows me best 'low I am."

"Ain't I a horse?"

"Yep; one kind of."

"Then ain't you an' me equal?"

"How fer kin you go in a day to a loaded buggy, drawin' five hundred
pounds?" Marcus asked carelessly.

"That has nothing to do with the case," the yellow horse answered
excitedly.

"There's nothing I know hez more to do with the case," Marcus replied.

"Kin ye yank a full car outer de tracks ten times in de mornin'?" said
Muldoon.

"Kin ye go to Keene--forty-two mile in an afternoon--with a mate," said
Rick; "an' turn out bright an' early next mornin'?"

"Was there evah any time in your careah, suh--I am not referrin' to
the present circumstances, but our mutual glorious past--when you could
carry a pretty girl to market hahnsome, an' let her knit all the way on
account o' the smoothness o' the motion?" said Tweezy.

"Kin you keep your feet through the West River Bridge, with the
narrer-gage comin' in on one side, an' the Montreal flyer the other, an'
the old bridge teeterin' between?" said the Deacon. "Kin you put your
nose down on the cow-catcher of a locomotive when you're waitin' at the
depot an' let 'em play 'Curfew shall not ring to-night' with the big
brass bell?"

"Kin you hold back when the brichin' breaks? Kin you stop fer orders
when your nigh hind leg's over your trace an' ye feel good of a frosty
mornin'?" said Nip, who had only learned that trick last winter, and
thought it was the crown of horsely knowledge.

"What's the use o' talk in'?" said Tedda Gabler, scornfully. "What kin
ye do?"

"I re