bbon at the
Garden. Alderman Martin would give $1,000 for him as he stands. He has
hunted the State for him. You remember Martin--Reddy Martin--who used to
be on the mounted squad! Didn't you hear? An old uncle who made a
fortune as a building contractor died about a year ago and left the
whole pile to Reddy. He's got a fine country place up in Westchester and
is in the city government. Just elected this fall. But he isn't happy
because he can't find his old horse--and here's the horse."

Next day an astonished junkman stood before an empty shanty which served
as a stable and feasted his eyes on a fifty-dollar bank-note.

* * * * *

If you are ever up in Westchester County be sure to visit the stables of
Alderman P. Sarsfield Martin. Ask to see that oak-panelled box-stall
with the stained-glass windows and the porcelain feed-box. You will
notice a polished brass name-plate on the door bearing this inscription:

SKIPPER.

You may meet the Alderman himself, wearing an English-made riding-suit,
loping comfortably along on a sleek bay gelding with two white forelegs
and a white star on his forehead. Yes, high-priced veterinaries can cure
spavin--Alderman Martin says so.

CALICO

WHO TRAVELLED WITH A ROUND TOP

Something there was about Calico's markings which stuck in one's mind,
as does a haunting memory, intangible but unforgotten. Surely the
pattern was obtrusive enough to halt attention; yet its vagaries were so
unexpected, so surprising that, even as you looked, you might hesitate
at declaring whether it was his withers or his flanks which were
carrot-red and if he had four white stockings or only three. It was
safer simply to say that he was white where he was not red and red where
he was not white. Moreover, his was a vivid coat.

Altogether Calico was a horse to be remarked and to be remembered.
Yet--and again yet--Calico was not wholly to blame for his many faults.
Farm breeding, which was more or less responsible for his bizarre
appearance, should also bear the burden of his failings. As a colt he
had been the marvel of the county, from Orono to Hermon Centre. He had
been petted, teased, humored, exhibited, coddled, fooled
with--everything save properly trained and broken.

So he grew up a trace shirker and a halter-puller, with disposition,
temperament, and general behavior as uneven as his coloring.

"The most good-fer-nothin' animal I ever wasted grain on!" de