"Not so much wild as isolated. Kentucky is scarcely a railroad center, you know. Out of twenty-one counties in my district, fourteen possess neither railroad, telegraph, nor telephone connection with the rest of the world at all."
Hamilton whistled softly.
"I hadn't realized that there was any part of Kentucky as isolated as that," he said, "even in the mountains. But I'm glad, just the same, because these isolated communities are much more fun than the places where everybody seems to be cut out by the same pattern."
"You'll find all the variety you want," the supervisor remarked, as he turned into a big stable building, "and you'll need four legs more beside your own two." He led the way to a stall near the far end of the building, and brought out the little mare of which he had been speaking.
"What a beauty!" exclaimed the boy.
The supervisor laughed.
"That's no way to buy a horse," he said, turning to the stableman; "it's a good thing I arranged the price before he came, or you'd have tacked on another twenty dollars."
"Easy, and more than that," said the owner, with a grin.
"Well, Noble," said his friend, "I don't hear yon raising any objections."
"I haven't any," the boy replied promptly. "And the price is what you said to me?" he queried, turning to the supervisor.