orses_ are
worth!"

"My gracious!" Sam exclaimed. Then he had a practical afterthought.
"But maybe he was a better horse than this'n. What color was he?"

"He was bay. Looky here, Sam"--and now Penrod's manner changed from the
superior to the eager--"you look what kind of horses they have in a
circus, and you bet a circus has the _best_ horses, don't it? Well,
what kind of horses do they have in a circus? They have some black and
white ones, but the best they have are white all over. Well, what kind
of a horse is this we got here? He's perty near white right now, and I
bet if we washed him off and got him fixed up nice he _would_ be white.
Well, a bay horse is worth five hundred dollars, because that's what
papa said, and this horse----"

Sam interrupted rather timidly.

"He--he's awful bony, Penrod. You don't guess that'd make any----"

Penrod laughed contemptuously.

"Bony! All he needs is a little food and he'll fill right up and look
good as ever. You don't know much about horses, Sam, I expect. Why,
_our_ ole horse----"

"Do you expect he's hungry now?" asked Sam, staring at Whitey.

"Let's try him," said Penrod. "Horses like hay and oats the best, but
they'll eat most anything."

"I guess they will. He's tryin' to eat that manger up right now, and I
bet it ain't good for him."

"Come on," said Penrod, closing the door that gave entrance to the
stalls. "We got to get this horse some drinkin'-water and some good
food."

They tried Whitey's appetite first with an autumnal branch which they
wrenched from a hardy maple in the yard. They had seen horses nibble
leaves, and they expected Whitey to nibble the leaves of this branch,
but his ravenous condition did not allow him time for cool
discriminations. Sam poked the branch at him from the passageway, and
Whitey, after one backward movement of alarm, seized it venomously.
"Here! You stop that!" Sam shouted. "You stop that, you ole horse,
you!"

"What's the matter?" called Penrod from the hydrant, where he was
filling a bucket. "What's he doin' now?"

"Doin'! He's eatin' the wood part, too! He's chewin' up sticks as big
as baseball bats! He's crazy!"

Penrod rushed to see this sight, and stood aghast.

"Take it away from him, Sam!" he commanded sharply.

"Go on, take it away from him yourself!" was the prompt retort of his
comrade.

"You had no biz'nuss to give it to him," said Penrod. "Anybody with any
sense ought to know it'd make him sick. What