"A right pretty idea, Miss. Now this hoss I'm a riding, Brother Starbuck, is a single footer, in fine condition and can run a quarter with the best of them."
"I hearn that you swopped tuther day with Dave Somer's an' the hoss died durin' of the night," said Jasper. "Is that so?"
"Brother Starbuck," the preacher replied, looking grave, "life is just as uncertain among hosses as among men. We know not the day nor the hour when the healthiest hoss may be called, as it were; and I could not of course foresee the death of the hoss I swopped to Dave. I regretted his—I might say demise, but it was no fault of mine."
Mrs. Mayfield, feeling that the preacher was not attaching enough importance to the coming marriages, ventured to remark that her brother, who was a United States Judge at Nashville, had ever been regarded as a keen appraiser of a horse. But the fact that she was the sister of so distinguished a man did not at all startle the preacher. "Glad to know it, Miss. I'll go out and look at your hoss, Jasper."
"After the wedding," Margaret suggested.
"And then you can swop hosses all day," said Jim.
"A good idea no doubt, Brother Jim Starbuck. And how are the people over in your highland district?"
"In need of the gospel as they are here," Jim replied.
"Yes, here and everywhere, Brother Jim Starbuck. Your breed of hosses up there are very sure-footed. I had one that could climb a hill-side like a goat. Many professions resultant from the revivals last fall, Brother Jim Starbuck?"
"Yes, and a number of additions to the church."