The chagrin of his antagonist’s rider was not lessened by the laughs and cheers of the farmers, as they clustered about Morgan and patted his round, deep body and oblique shoulders.
The Coxcomb took his defeat ungracefully and having settled his bets rode impatiently away with his friends.
FOOTNOTES:
[9] Morgan Horses, Linsley, page 137.
CHAPTER XII.
OLD GREY TELLS PIONEER TALES.
Many events similar to the one related in the last chapter spread the Morgan’s fame throughout the Valley, and when Evans finished his clearing Justin Morgan once more took possession of the horse, for his health was sufficiently restored to take up school-teaching again.
The change from hard farm-work was very agreeable to True, and they cantered from place to place right gaily, albeit the horse missed the sweet singing of Master Morgan, who coughed now incessantly, and often had to dismount and rest in the shade of an oak on the roadside.
He was scarce forty years old, but seemed much more on account of his grievous malady.
Regularly they went to Royalton, some ten miles to the southward, and True grazed about until school let out. Through the window he sometimes saw the gentle, delicate face of the teacher at his desk, his Continental coat slightly open at the throat, showing a bit of fresh white linen, his queue, in the fashion of the day, tied with a stiff bow of black ribband.