out of gear. His graduated scale of
seein' things was different from our'n. I don't reckon anybody ever
will know what all Pinto saw with them glass lamps of his, but all the
time we knowed that if we could ever onct get his lookin' outfit tuned
up proper, we had the whole country skinned in a horse race; for he
could shore run copious.

"That was why he had the whole Bar T outfit guessin' all the time. We
all wanted to bet on him, and we was all scared to. Sometimes we'd
make up a purse among us, and we'd go over to some social getherin' or
other, and win a thousand dollars. Old Pinto could run all day; he can
yet, for that matter. Didn't make no difference to him how often we
raced him; and natural, after we'd won one hatful of money with him,
we'd want to win another. That was where our judgment was weak.

"You never could tell whether Pinto was goin' to finish under the wire,
or out in the landscape. His eyes seemed to be sort of moverble, but
like enough they'd get sot when he went to runnin'. Then he'd run
whichever way he was lookin' at the time, or happened to think he was
lookin'; and dependin' additional on what he thought he saw. And law!
A whole board of supervisors and school commissioners couldn't have
looked that horse in the face, and guessed on their sacred honor
whether he was goin' to jump the fence to the left, or take to the high
sage on the outside of the track.

"Onct in a while we'd git Pinto's left eye set at a angle, and he'd
come around the track and under the wire before she wobbled out of
place. On them occasions we made money a heap easier than I ever did
a-gettin' it from home. But, owin' to the looseness of them eyes, I
don't reckon there never was no horse racin' as uncertain as this here;
and like enough you may have observed it's uncertain enough even when
things is fixed in the most comf'terble way possible."

A deep sigh greeted this, which showed that Curly's audience was in
full sympathy.

"You always felt like puttin' the saddle on to Pinto hind end to, he
was so cross-eyed," he resumed ruminatingly, "but still you couldn't
help feelin' sorry for him, neither. Now, he had a right pained and
grieved look in his face all the time. I reckon he thought this was a
hard sort of a world to get along in. It is. A cross-eyed man has a
hard enough time, but a cross-eyed _horse_--well, you don't know how
much trouble he can be for hisself, and every one else around him.