David Harum | Page 8

the price a little.' 'No,' he says, 'I guess not.
I don't need another hoss jest now.' An' then, after a minute he says:
'Say, mebbe the bay hoss we drove 'd come nearer the mark fer White,
if he's all right. Jest as soon I'd look at him?' he says. 'Wa'al, I hain't no
objections, but I guess he's more of a hoss than the dominie 'd care for,
but I'll go an' fetch him out,' I says. So I brought him out, an' the deakin
looked him all over. I see it was a case of love at fust sight, as the
story-books says. 'Looks all right,' he says. 'I'll tell ye,' I says, 'what the
feller I bought him of told me.' 'What's that?' says the deakin. 'He said
to me,' I says, '"that hoss hain't got a scratch ner a pimple on him. He's
sound an' kind, an' 'll stand without hitchin', an' a lady c'd drive him as
well 's a man."'
"'That's what he said to me,' I says, 'an' it's every word on't true. You've
seen whether or not he c'n travel,' I says, 'an', so fur 's I've seen, he ain't
'fraid of nothin'.' 'D'ye want to sell him?' the deakin says. 'Wa'al,' I says,
'I ain't offerin' him fer sale. You'll go a good ways,' I says, ''fore you'll
strike such another; but, of course, he ain't the only hoss in the world,
an' I never had anythin' in the hoss line I wouldn't sell at some price.'
'Wa'al,' he says, 'what d' ye ask fer him?' 'Wa'al,' I says, 'if my own
brother was to ask me that question I'd say to him two hunderd dollars,
cash down, an' I wouldn't hold the offer open an hour,' I says."
"My!" ejaculated Aunt Polly. "Did he take you up?"

"'That's more'n I give fer a hoss 'n a good while,' he says, shakin' his
head, 'an' more'n I c'n afford, I'm 'fraid.' 'All right,' I says; 'I c'n afford
to keep him'; but I knew I had the deakin same as the woodchuck had
Skip. 'Hitch up the roan,' I says to Mike; 'the deakin wants to be took up
to his house.' 'Is that your last word?' he says. 'That's what it is,' I says.
'Two hunderd, cash down.'"
"Didn't ye dast to trust the deakin?" asked Mrs. Bixbee.
"Polly," said David, "the's a number of holes in a ten-foot ladder." Mrs.
Bixbee seemed to understand this rather ambiguous rejoinder.
"He must 'a' squirmed some," she remarked. David laughed.
"The deakin ain't much used to payin' the other feller's price," he said,
"an' it was like pullin' teeth; but he wanted that hoss more'n a cow
wants a calf, an' after a little more squimmidgin' he hauled out his
wallet an' forked over. Mike come out with the roan, an' off the deakin
went, leadin' the bay hoss."
"I don't see," said Mrs. Bixbee, looking up at her brother, "thet after all
the' was anythin' you said to the deakin thet he could ketch holt on."
"The' wa'n't nothin'," he replied. "The only thing he c'n complain
about's what I didn't say to him."
"Hain't he said anythin' to ye?" Mrs. Bixbee inquired.
"He, he, he, he! He hain't but once, an' the' wa'n't but little of it then."
"How?"
"Wa'al, the day but one after the deakin sold himself Mr.
Stickin'-Plaster I had an arrant three four mile or so up past his place,
an' when I was comin' back, along 'bout four or half past, it come on to
rain like all possessed. I had my old umbrel'--though it didn't hender me
f'm gettin' more or less wet--an' I sent the old mare along fer all she
knew. As I come along to within a mile f'm the deakin's house I seen

somebody in the road, an' when I come up closter I see it was the
deakin himself, in trouble, an' I kind o' slowed up to see what was goin'
on. There he was, settin' all humped up with his ole broad-brim hat
slopin' down his back, a-sheddin' water like a roof. Then I seen him
lean over an' larrup the hoss with the ends of the lines fer all he was
wuth. It appeared he hadn't no whip, an' it wouldn't done him no good
if he'd had. Wa'al, sir, rain or no rain, I jest pulled up to watch him.
He'd larrup a spell, an' then he'd set back; an' then he'd lean over an' try
it agin, harder'n ever. Scat my ----! I thought I'd die a-laughin'. I
couldn't hardly cluck to the mare when I got ready to move on. I drove
alongside an' pulled up. 'Hullo, deakin,' I says, 'what's the matter?' He