"Race-horses! Why, are they fleet of foot?"
"Fleet as deer. I'd match one against an ordinary horse at any time."
"Come, my friend, you're practising on my ignorance of natural history."
"Not a bit of it. See! there's a good specimen yonder. If we can get him into the road, and fairly started, I'll bet you a dollar he'll beat Sandy's mare on a half-mile stretch—Sandy to hold the stakes and have the winnings."
"Well, agreed," I said, laughing, "and I'll give the pig ten rods the start."
"No," replied the Colonel, "you can't afford it. He'll have to start ahead, but you'll need that in the count. Come, Sandy, will you go in for the pile?"
I'm not sure that the native would not have run a race with Old Nicholas himself, for the sake of so much money. To him it was a vast sum; and as he thought of it, his eyes struck small sparks, and his enormous beard and mustachio vibrated with something that faintly resembled a laugh. Replying to the question, he said:
"Kinder reckon I wull, Cunnel; howsomdever, I keeps the stakes, ony how?"
"Of course," said the planter, "but be honest—win if you can."
Sandy halted his horse in the road, while the planter and I took to the woods on either side of the way. The Colonel soon man[oe]uvred to separate the selected animal from the rest of the herd, and, without much difficulty, got him into the road, where, by closing down on each flank, we kept him till he and Sandy were fairly under way.