h on to forty year younger 'n I be,
and smart as a steel trap, tell you! So you see we're kind of a mixed-up
family. My fust and second broods of children's married off, or
buried,--scattered to the four winds o' heaven! Tew boys o' the third
brood, and that ar Sal, is with me yit. Some of the present brood you've
seen. Thar's been twenty-one in all."

"Of the fourth brood?"

"No, of the lot. Whose hoss mout that be?"

"Mine; I brought him from the East with me."

"What do you have to pay for a beast like that, now, in York State?"

"I didn't pay anything for him."

"Somebody gi'n him tew ye?"

"Not exactly."

"Ye gambled for him?"

"No."

"Raised him from a colt, then?"

"No."

"Stole him?"

"Not much."

"Picked him up astray?"

The young surveyor, laughing, shook his head.

"Then how in the name o' seven kingdoms did ye come by him, if ye didn't
find him, nor steal him, nor raise him from a colt, nor buy him, nor
have him gi'n tew ye?"

"I borrowed him of a neighbor, and drove him to a show, where the old
elephant broke loose and had the handling of him for about a second and
a half. The owners of the elephant paid the damages; and I kept the
horse. Nobody thought he would get well; but he is now scarcely lame at
all. I can show you the scars where he was hurt."

The two had approached the wagon during this talk; and now the old man
examined the horse with a good deal of curiosity.

"That your dog tew?"

"Yes, sir. Here, Lion!"

"Cost ye suth'n, didn't it, to bring yer animals West with ye?"

"Not a great deal. When my friends wrote for me to come, they said good
horses were scarce and high-priced out here, and advised me to bring
mine. I couldn't leave my dog behind,--could I, old Lion?"

"Who mout your friends be?"

"Mr. and Mrs. Lanman, at North Mills; and Mrs. Lanman's brother,--my
boss, as you call him,--Mr. Felton, the surveyor. They came out last
year; and last winter they wrote to me, offering me a good chance if I
should come. It was in winter; I drove Snowfoot in a cutter, and crossed
the Detroit River on the ice just before it broke up. There the
sleighing left me; so I sold my cutter, bought a saddle, and made the
rest of the journey on horseback. That was rather hard on the dog, but I
got the stage-drivers to give him a lift once in a while."

"What did you say your name was?" the old man inquired.

"I don't think I said. But I will say now. My name is Ragdon,--Henry
R