“Sixteen mile, nearly,” says Hamilcar. “Um! Ho, hum! Give her a good rest there, mister? See she gits water and feed? Eh?”
“Of course,” says Skip.
“Come over here closer,” says Hamilcar. “I want to git a better look at you. Hain’t goin’ to trust that hoss to nobody I don’t like the looks of.”
There was a little while when nobody said anything and I judged Skip was coming closer. Then Hamilcar says:
“You hain’t much for looks, mister, and that’s a fact. I dun’no’s I’d care to send my hoss off under your care.”
“How does that ten-dollar bill look?” says Skip.
“Good-lookin’ bill,” says Hamilcar. “Dun’no’s I ever seen a nicer-lookin’ bill—but that hain’t got nothin’ to do with it. If I didn’t calc’late my hoss’d git used well you couldn’t hire her, mister, not if you was a-goin’ to paper my house with ten-dollar bills. No, sir. It’s like I said. That hoss and me is friends.”
“Plunk,” says Mark to me, “I hain’t very scared of Mr. Janes.”
“No?” says I. “Why?”
“Hear what he s-says about his horse?”