“All right, boss,” Skeeter replied. “I’ll take you up!”
II
Skeeter staged his commercial transaction with some forethought. He chose nine negroes whom he knew to be possessed of ten dollars each, and asked them to meet him out at the old fair-grounds. He got Little Bit, who was the colored jockey of Tickfall, to give the horse a try-out.
In appearance, the horse was all the white man said he was, and more. He had a peculiar slinking gait, like a limp, sometimes in one foot, then in another. Often he seemed to be limping in all four feet at the same time.
The negroes howled in derision when Skeeter proposed to be one of ten to buy the animal. They examined his feet and made many comments, and finally proposed to bet Skeeter ten dollars that he could not tell what leg the horse would limp on the next time he started off.
But when Little Bit climbed on that horse the negroes stopped laughing. He could run like a jack-rabbit, and really had the jack-rabbit’s peculiar springy, limpy gait.
“Dis hoss is a powerful funny pufformer,” Conko Mukes howled; “but I puts my ten on him. He’s a runner!”
“Who’s gwine take keer of dis hoss whut belongs to us ten niggers?” Pap Curtain inquired.
“I’ll keep him an’ feed him,” Skeeter answered. “I kin turn him in a big pasture dat belongs to Marse John Flournoy, an’ Marse John won’t ever know he’s in de field. I’ll feed him Marse John’s oats and corn, an’ dat white man won’t ever miss it.”
Two hours later Skeeter returned to the Hen-Scratch and handed Mr. Nuhat the sum of ninety dollars.