w
of the field in which the horses were, than they espied two thieves
attempting to coax the 'Squire's favorite horse to them. The animal,
however, had always been shy of strangers, and would never suffer itself to
be caught by one even in the day-time. It was a noble animal, and the
thieves, as well as the lawful owner, had set their hearts upon it. They
would approach as near as prudence dictated, and then hold out corn and
salt to entice the beast; it would come near, but the moment they made the
least motion to catch it, would wheel about and let fly at them with its
heels in such a manner as evinced to the thieves that it was best to keep
at a respectful distance. They were yet unwilling to go without him, and
made repeated attempts to win him over to their way of thinking, but he was
entirely too honest to be wheedled into such bad company.

The 'Squire watched their operations until he thought it was about time to
stop the play, and then fired near, but not at the rascals, at the same
time calling out to them that they had better leave in short meter if they
wanted to get away alive. Supposing that he was alone and his gun empty,
they returned an insolent answer, to the effect that they would leave
shortly on a couple of his horses; and turned to try their hand at taking
some of the others in the pasture. To such a bold pass had the thieves
arrived!

"Aim _at_ the rascals, and fire!" said the 'Squire to his companion; and
they did so.

"By jing, Bill, we'd better be moving, I believe. That ball took a lock of
hair off by my ear!"

"The devil it did!"

Everything being still at the moment, the 'Squire heard this scrap of
conversation between the thieves, and called out:

"Yes, you _had_ better leave, or I'll put the next ball through one of your
hearts!"

"Do it, then, and be ----!" said one of them; and leveling a horse pistol
at the 'Squire he fired, the ball from which struck the fence close by.
This climax of insolence aroused the 'Squire fully. His gun was just
reloaded, and taking the best aim at one of the miscreants, both of whom
were now retreating rapidly, he fired. The fellow clapped his hand to his
face, but continued to run. They were soon out of sight.

The incidents here related are strictly true; but the truth is not half
told. Many such scenes took place, and numbers of the thieves were killed,
and some of them proved to be neighbors to those who had shot them!

The villains on this occ