“An't she a streak of lightnin', and no mistake?” said he, gazing on her with rapture. “An't she glibber to move nor a wag of a comet's tail, when he 's taking a lark round the moon? There's hocks! there's pasterns! Show me a gal with ankles like 'em, and look at her, here! An't she a-made for sittin' on?”
I entered into all his raptures. She was faultless in every point,—save, perhaps, that in looking at you she would throw her eye backwards, and show a little bit too much of the white. I remarked this to the ostler.
“The only fault she has,” said he, shaking his head; “she mistrusts a body always, and so she's eternally a lookin' back, and a gatherin' up her quarters, and a holdin' of her tail tight in; but for that, she's a downright regular beauty, and for stride and bottom there ain't her equal nowhere.”
“Her late master was unlucky, I've heard,” said I, insinuatingly.
“He was so far unlucky that he could n't sit his beast over a torrent and a down leap. He would hold her in, and she won't bear it at a spring, and so she flung him before she took the leap; and when she lit, 't other side, with her head high and her hind legs under her, he was a sittin' with his 'n under his arm, and his neck bruck,—that was the way o' it. See now, master, if ever ye do want a great streak out of her, leave the head free a bit, press her wi' your calves, and give a right down reg'lar halloo,—ha! like a Mexican chap; then she'll do it!”
The ostler found me a willing listener, either when dwelling on the animal's perfections, or suggesting hints for her future management; and when at last both these themes were tolerably exhausted, he proceeded to show me the horse-gear of saddle, and bridle, and halter, and holsters, all handsomely finished in Mexican taste, and studded with brass nails in various gay devices. At last he produced the rifle,—a regular Kentucky one, of Colt's making,—and what he considered a still greater prize, a bell-mouthed thing half horse-pistol, half blunderbuss, which he called “a almighty fine 'Harper's Ferry tool,' that would throw thirty bullets through an oak panel two inches thick.”
It was evident that he looked upon the whole equipment as worthy of the most exalted possession, and he gazed on me as one whose lot was indeed to be envied.
“Seth and the others leave this to-morrow a'ternoon,” said he; “but if ye be a-goin' to Austin, where the 'Spedeshin' puts up, take my advice, and get away before 'em. You 've a fine road,—no trouble to find the way; your beast will carry you forty, fifty, if you want it, sixty, miles between sunrise and 'down;' and you 'll be snug over the journey before they reach Killian's Mill, the half-way. An' if ye want to know why I say so, it's just because that's too good a beast to tempt a tramper wi', and them's all trampers!”
I gave the ostler a dollar for all his information and civility, and re-entered the inn to have my supper. The cap'n had already returned home, and after verifying my ticket, took my receipt for the mare, which I gave in all form, writing my name, “Con Cregan,” as though it were to a check for a thousand pounds.