hoss but
Goodish Greevoy, and he'd manage the devil that feller, for he is man,
horse, shark, and sarpent all in one, that Frenchman. What possessed you
to buy such a varmint as that?'

"'Grave digger!' said doleful Steve, 'what is that?'

"'Why,' sais he, 'they went one day to bury a man, down to Clare did
the French, and when they got to the grave, who should be in it but the
pony. He couldn't see, and as he was a feedin' about, he tumbled in head
over heels and they called him always arterwards 'the Grave-digger.'"

"'Very simple people them French,' sais I, 'Elder; they don't know
nothin' about hosses, do they? Their priests keep them in ignorance on
purpose.'

"Steve winced and squinched his face properly; and said the glass in
his hands hurt him. Well, arter we sot all to rights, we began to jog
on towards Digby. The Elder didn't say much, he was as chop fallen as
a wounded moose; at last, says he, 'I'll ship him to St. John, and sell
him. I'll put him on board of Captain Ned Leonard's vessel, as soon as I
get to Digby.' Well, as I turned my head to answer him, and sot eyes on
him agin, it most sot me a haw, hawin' a second time, he _did_ look so
like Old Scratch. Oh Hedges! how haggardised he was! His new hat was
smashed down like a cap on the crown of his head, his white cravat was
bloody, his face all scratched, as if he had been clapper-clawed by a
woman, and his hands was bound up with rags, where the glass cut 'em.
The white sand of the floor of Everett's parlour had stuck to his
damp clothes, and he looked like an old half corned miller, that was a
returnin' to his wife, arter a spree. A leetle crest fallen for what he
had got, a leetle mean for the way he looked, and a leetle skeered
for what he'd catch, when he got to home. The way he sloped warn't no
matter. He was a pictur, and a pictur I must say, I liked to look at.

"And now Squire, do you take him off too, ingrave him, and bind him up
in your book, and let others look at it, and put onder it '_the Elder
and the Grave-digger_.'"

"Well, when we got to town, the tide was high, and the vessel jist ready
to cast off, and Steve, knowin' how skeer'd pony was of the water, got
off to lead him, but the critter guessed it warn't a bridge, for he
smelt salt water on both sides of him, and ahead too, and budge he
wouldn't. Well, they beat him most to death, but he beat back agin with
his heels, and it was a drawd fight. Then they goes to the fence and