set
forward,--bad signs,--but it was done so quickly I could not be sure
of it.

We packed the other horses while the blue pony stood resting one hind
leg, his eyes dreaming.

I flung the canvas cover over the bay packhorse.... Something took
place. I heard a bang, a clatter, a rattling of hoofs. I peered
around the bay and saw the blue pony performing some of the most
finished, vigorous, and varied bucking it has ever been given me to
witness. He all but threw somersaults. He stood on his upper lip. He
humped up his back till he looked like a lean cat on a graveyard
fence. He stood on his toe calks and spun like a weather-vane on a
livery stable, and when the pack exploded and the saddle slipped
under his belly, he kicked it to pieces by using both hind hoofs as
featly as a man would stroke his beard.

After calming the other horses, I faced my partner solemnly.

"Oh, by the way, partner, where did you get that nice, quiet, little
blue pony of yours?"

Partner smiled sheepishly. "The little divil. Buffalo Bill ought to
have that pony."

"Well, now," said I, restraining my laughter, "the thing to do is to
put that pack on so that it will stay. That pony will try the same
thing again, sure."

We packed him again with great care. His big, innocent black eyes
shining under his bang were a little more alert, but they showed
neither fear nor rage. We roped him in every conceivable way, and at
last stood clear and dared him to do his prettiest.

He did it. All that had gone before was merely preparatory, a
blood-warming, so to say; the real thing now took place. He stood up
on his hind legs and shot into the air, alighting on his four feet as
if to pierce the earth. He whirled like a howling dervish, grunting,
snorting--unseeing, and almost unseen in a nimbus of dust, strap
ends, and flying pine needles. His whirling undid him. We seized the
rope, and just as the pack again slid under his feet we set shoulder
to the rope and threw him. He came to earth with a thud, his legs
whirling uselessly in the air. He resembled a beetle in molasses. We
sat upon his head and discussed him.

"He is a wonder," said my partner.

We packed him again with infinite pains, and when he began bucking we
threw him again and tried to kill him. We were getting irritated. We
threw him hard, and drew his hind legs up to his head till he
grunted. When he was permitted to rise, he looked meek and small and
tired and we were both deeply re