ay I got 'quainted with 'em.
They're all fer ridin' hossback when they're up here. Did you ever ride
a hoss?" he asked.

"Oh, yes," said John, "I have ridden a good deal one time and another."

"Never c'd see the sense on't," declared David. "I c'n imagine gettin'
on to a hoss's back when 't was either that or walkin', but to do it fer
the fun o' the thing 's more 'n I c'n understand. There you be," he
continued, "stuck up four five feet up in the air like a clo'espin,
havin' your backbone chucked up into your skull, an' takin' the skin off
in spots an' places, expectin' ev'ry next minute the critter'll git out
f'm under ye--no, sir," he protested, "if it come to be that it was
either to ride a hossback fer the fun o' the thing or have somebody kick
me, an' kick me hard, I'd say, 'Kick away.' It comes to the same thing
fur 's enjoyment goes, and it's a dum sight safer."

John laughed outright, while David leaned forward with his hands on his
knees, looking at him with a broad though somewhat doubtful smile.

"That being your feeling," remarked John, "I should think saddle horses
would be rather out of your line. Was it a saddle horse that the Misses
Verjoos were interested in?"

"Wa'al, I didn't buy him fer that," replied David, "an' in fact when the
feller that sold him to me told me he'd ben rode, I allowed that ought
to knock twenty dollars off 'n the price, but I did have such a hoss,
an', outside o' that, he was a nice piece of hoss flesh. I was up to the
barn one mornin', mebbe four years ago," he continued, "when in drove
the Verjoos carriage with one of the girls, the oldest one, inside, an'
the yeller-haired one on a hossback. 'Good mornin'. You're Mr. Harum,
ain't you?' she says. 'Good mornin',' I says, 'Harum's the name 't I use
when I appear in public. You're Miss Verjoos, I reckon,' I says.

"She laughed a little, an' says, motionin' with her head to'ds the
carriage, 'My sister is Miss Verjoos. I'm Miss Claricy.' I took off my
cap, an' the other girl jest bowed her head a little.

"'I heard you had a hoss 't I could ride,' says the one on hossback.

"'Wa'al,' I says, lookin' at her hoss, an' he was a good one," remarked
David, "'fer a saddle hoss, I shouldn't think you was entirely out o'
hosses long's you got that one.' 'Oh,' she says, this is my sister's
hoss. Mine has hurt his leg so badly that I am 'fraid I sha'n't be able
to ride him this summer.' 'Wa'al,' I says, 'I've got a hoss that's ben
ro