warm blood in their veins. There is no
question nowadays as to the value of warm blood in either riding or
driving horses. It gives ability, endurance, courage, and docility
beyond expectation. One-sixteenth thorough blood will, in many animals,
dominate the fifteen-sixteenths of cold blood, and prove its virtue by
unusual endurance, stamina, and wearing capacity.

The blue-grass region of Kentucky has furnished some of the finest
horses in the world, and I have owned several which gave grand service
until they were eighteen or twenty years old. An honest horseman at
Paris, Kentucky, has sold me a dozen or more, and I was willing to trust
his judgment for a saddler for Jane. My request to him was for a
light-built horse; weight, one thousand pounds; game and spirited, but
safe for a woman, and one broken to jump. Everything else, including
price, was left to him.

In good time Jane's horse came, and we were well pleased with it, as
indeed we ought to have been. My Paris man wrote: "I send a bay mare
that ought to fill the bill. She is as quiet as a kitten, can run like a
deer, and jump like a kangaroo. My sister has ridden her for four
months, and she is not speaking to me now. If you don't like her, send
her back."

But I did like her, and I sent, instead, a considerable check. The mare
was a bright bay with a white star on her forehead and white stockings
on her hind feet, stood fifteen hands three inches, weighed 980 pounds,
and looked almost too light built; but when we noted the deep chest,
strong loins, thin legs, and marvellous thighs, we were free to admit
that force and endurance were promised. Jane was delighted.

"Dad, if I live to be a hundred years old, I will never forget this day.
She's the sweetest horse that ever lived. I must find a nice name for
her, and to-morrow we will take our first ride, you and Tom and Aloha
and I--yes, that's her name."

We did ride the next day, and many days thereafter; and Aloha proved all
and more than the Kentuckian had promised.

CHAPTER XLVI

THE SKIM-MILK TRUST

The third quarter of the year made a better showing than any previous
one, due chiefly to the sale of hogs in August. The hens did well up to
September, when they began to make new clothes for themselves and could
not be bothered with egg-making. There were a few more than seven
hundred in the laying pens, and nearly as many more rapidly approaching
the useful age. The chief advantage in early