t came ter blow,
an' ter pour cats and dogs, an' I was nigh washed out o' the buggy,
besides losin' my way and gettin' inter ditches and puddles, and I hed
to stop at Staples' Half-Way House and put up for the night. In the
mornin' I riz up early and goes into the stable yard, and the first
thing I sees was the 'ostler. 'I hope ye giv' my hoss a good scrub
down,' I sez, 'as I told ye, for his color is that delicate the
smallest spot shows. It's a very rare color for a hoss.' 'I was
hopin' it might be,' sez he. I was a little huffed at that, and I sez:
'It's considered a very beautiful color.' 'Mebbe it is,' sez he, 'but I
never cared much for fireworks.' 'What yer mean?' sez I. 'Look here,
Squire!' sez he; 'I don't mind scourin' and rubbin' down a hoss that
will stay the same color TWICE, but when he gets to playin' a
kaladeoskope on me, I kick!' 'Trot him out,' sez I, beginnin' to feel
queer. With that he fetched out the hoss! For a minit I hed to ketch
on to the fence to keep myself from fallin'. I swonny! ef he didn't
look like a case of measles on top o' yaller fever--'cept where the
harness had touched him, and that was kinder stenciled out all over
him. Thar was places whar the 'ostler had washed down to the
foundation color, a kind o' chewed licorice! Then I knew that somebody
had bin sold terrible, and I reckoned it might be me! But I said
nothin' to the 'ostler, and waited until dark, when I drove him over
here, and put him in the stables, lettin' no one see him. In the
mornin' Lummox comes to me, and sez he: 'I'm glad to see you back,' sez
he, 'for my conscience is troublin' me about that hoss agreement; it
looks too much like a hoss trade,' sez he, 'and I'm goin' to send the
hoss back.' 'Mebbe your conscience,' sez I, 'may trouble you a little
more ef you'll step this way;' and with that I takes his arm and leads
him round to the stable and brings out the hoss.

"Well, Lummox never changes ez much as a hair, ez he puts up his
eyeglasses. 'I'm not good at what's called "Pop'lar Art,"' sez he. 'Is
it a chromo, or your own work?' sez he, critical like.

"'It's YOUR HOSS,' sez I.

"He looks at me a minit and then drors a paper from his pocket. 'This
paper,' sez he in his quiet way, 'was drored up by you and is a
covenant to return to me a yaller hoss with golden mane and tail--or a
hundred and fifty dollars. Ez I don't see the hoss anywhere--mebbe
you've got the hundred and fifty dollars handy?'