A WALKING DELEGATE
time to time, that he was paying any attention to the argument. He thrust his jaw out sidewise, as his habit is when he pulls, and changed his leg. His voice was hard and heavy, and his ears were close to his big, plain Hambletonian head.
"How old are you?" he said to the yellow horse.
"Nigh thirteen, I guess."
"Mean age; ugly age; I 'm gettin' that way myself. How long hev ye been pawin' this fire-fanged stable-litter?"
"If you mean my principles, I 've held 'em sence I was three."
"Mean age; ugly age; teeth give heaps o' trouble then. 'Set a colt to actin' crazy fer a while. You 've kep' it up, seemin'ly. D' ye talk much to your neighbors fer a steady thing?"
"I uphold the principles o' the Cause wherever I am pastured."
"'Done a heap o' good, I guess?"
"I am proud to say I have taught a few of my companions the principles o' freedom an' liberty."
"Meanin' they ran away er kicked when they got the chanst?"
"I was talkin' in the abstrac', an' not in the concrete. My teachin's educated them."
"What a horse, specially a young horse, hears in the abstrac', he 's liable to do in the Concord. You wuz handled late, I presoom."
"Four, risin' five."
"That 's where the trouble began. Driv' by a woman, like ez not—eh?"
[70]
