David Harum | Page 4

Edward Noyes Westcott
wa'n't
nothin' else."
"Wa'al, I declare!" exclaimed Mrs. Bixbee, wondering not more at the
deacon's turpitude than at the lapse in David's acuteness, of which she
had an immense opinion, but commenting only on the former. "I'm

'mazed at the deakin."
"Yes'm," said David with a grin, "I'm quite a liar myself when it comes
right down to the hoss bus'nis, but the deakin c'n give me both bowers
ev'ry hand. He done it so slick that I had to laugh when I come to think
it over--an' I had witnesses to the hull confab, too, that he didn't know
of, an' I c'd 've showed him up in great shape if I'd had a mind to."
"Why didn't ye?" said Aunt Polly, whose feelings about the deacon
were undergoing a revulsion.
"Wa'al, to tell ye the truth, I was so completely skunked that I hadn't a
word to say. I got rid o' the thing fer what it was wuth fer hide an' taller,
an' stid of squealin' 'round the way you say he's doin', like a stuck pig, I
kep' my tongue between my teeth an' laid to git even some time."
"You ort to 've hed the law on him," declared Mrs. Bixbee, now fully
converted. "The old scamp!"
"Wa'al," was the reply, "I gen'all prefer to settle out of court, an' in this
partic'lar case, while I might 'a' ben willin' t' admit that I hed ben did up,
I didn't feel much like swearin' to it. I reckoned the time 'd come when
mebbe I'd git the laugh on the deakin, an' it did, an' we're putty well
settled now in full."
"You mean this last pufformance?" asked Mrs. Bixbee. "I wish you'd
quit beatin' about the bush, an' tell me the hull story."
"Wa'al, it's like this, then, if you will hev it. I was over to Whiteboro a
while ago on a little matter of worldly bus'nis, an' I seen a couple of
fellers halter-exercisin' a hoss in the tavern yard. I stood 'round a spell
watchin' 'em, an' when he come to a standstill I went an' looked him
over, an' I liked his looks fust rate.
"'Fer sale?' I says.
"'Wa'al,' says the chap that was leadin' him, 'I never see the hoss that
wa'n't if the price was right.'

"'Your'n?' I says.
"'Mine an' his'n,' he says, noddin' his head at the other feller.
"'What ye askin' fer him?' I says.
"'One-fifty,' he says.
"I looked him all over agin putty careful, an' once or twice I kind o'
shook my head 's if I didn't quite like what I seen, an' when I got
through I sort o' half turned away without sayin' anythin', 's if I'd seen
enough.
"'The' ain't a scratch ner a pimple on him,' says the feller, kind o'
resentin' my looks. 'He's sound an' kind, an' 'll stand without hitchin',
an' a lady c'n drive him 's well 's a man."'
"'I ain't got anythin' agin him,' I says, 'an' prob'ly that's all true, ev'ry
word on't; but one-fifty's a consid'able price fer a hoss these days. I
hain't no pressin' use fer another hoss, an', in fact,' I says, 'I've got one
or two fer sale myself.'
"'He's wuth two hunderd jest as he stands,' the feller says. 'He hain't had
no trainin', an' he c'n draw two men in a road-wagin better'n fifty.'
"Wa'al, the more I looked at him the better I liked him, but I only says,
'Jes' so, jes' so, he may be wuth the money, but jest as I'm fixed now he
ain't wuth it to me, an' I hain't got that much money with me if he was,'
I says. The other feller hadn't said nothin' up to that time, an' he broke
in now. 'I s'pose you'd take him fer a gift, wouldn't ye?' he says, kind o'
sneerin'.
"'Wa'al, yes,' I says, 'I dunno but I would if you'd throw in a pound of
tea an' a halter.'
"He kind o' laughed an' says, 'Wa'al, this ain't no gift enterprise, an' I
guess we ain't goin' to trade, but I'd like to know,' he says, 'jest as a
matter of curios'ty, what you'd say he was wuth to ye?'

"'Wa'al,' I says, 'I come over this mornin' to see a feller that owed me a
trifle o' money. Exceptin' of some loose change, what he paid me 's all I
got with me,' I says, takin' out my wallet. 'That wad's got a hunderd an'
twenty-five into it, an' if you'd sooner have your hoss an' halter than the
wad,' I says, 'why, I'll bid ye good-day.'
"'You're offerin' one-twenty-five fer the hoss an' halter?' he says.
"'That's what I'm doin',' I says.
"'You've made a trade,' he
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