ds he and Miss
Bet looked each other square in the eye. Just what the horse thought no
one knows, but Kelly and I remember what Faye said! All desire to laugh,
however, was quickly crushed when I heard Kelly ordered to lead the
horse to the sutler's store, and fit a Spanish bit to her mouth, and to
take the saddle off and strap a blanket on tight with a surcingle, for I
knew that a hard and dangerous fight between man and horse was about to
commence. Faye told Cagey to chain Hal and then went in the house, soon
returning, however, without a blouse, and with moccasins on his feet and
with leggings.

When Kelly returned he looked most unhappy, for he loves horses and
has been so proud of Bettie. But Faye was not thinking of Kelly and
proceeded at once to mount, having as much fire in his eyes as the horse
had in hers, for she had already discovered that the bit was not to her
liking. As soon as she felt Faye's weight, up went her back again,
but down she could not get her head, and the more she pushed down, the
harder the spoon of the bit pressed against the roof of her mouth. This
made her furious, and as wild as when first brought from the range.

She lunged and lunged--forward and sideways--reared, and of course tried
to run away, but with all the vicious things her little brain could
think of, she could not get the bit from her mouth or Faye from her
back. So she started to rub him off--doing it with thought and in the
most scientific way. She first went to the corner of our house, then
tried the other corner of that end, and so she went on, rubbing up
against every object she saw--house, tree, and fence--even going up the
steps at the post trader's. That I thought very smart, for the bit
was put in her mouth there, and she might have hoped to find some kind
friend who would take it out.

It required almost two hours of the hardest kind of riding to conquer
the horse, and to teach her that just as long as she held her head up
and behaved herself generally, the bit would not hurt her. She finally
gave in, and is once more a tractable beast, and I have ridden her
twice, but with the Spanish bit. She is a nervous animal and will always
be frisky. It has leaked out that the morning she bucked so viciously,
a cat had been thrown upon her back at the corral by a playful soldier,
just before she had been led up. Kelly did not like to tell this of a
comrade. It was most fortunate that I had decided not to ride at that
time