“I was so interested in the hoss that I gave a start of surprise when the farmer’s voice behind me sez: ‘You seem to like hosses, son.’
“‘I hadn’t no idee ’at a great big one like this could be so smooth an’ gentle,’ I said, with my hand rubbin’ along the hoss’s throat. ‘I think he’s a wonder.’
“‘Do you like other animals?’ asked the farmer.
“‘I reckon I must be an animal myself,’ sez I, ‘because I allus get along well with them, while I have to fight a lot with humans.’
“‘What do you want for tendin’ to this hoss?’ he asked me.
“‘I don’t want nothin’,’ sez I. ‘We’ve got to be friends, an’ I don’t charge nothin’ for doin’ favors for a friend. Besides, he’s got so much sense, I doubt if he needs much watchin’.’
“The farmer grinned, looked into my eyes a long time, and gave me a dollar. ‘Now tell me how you’ll spend your dollar,’ sez he.
“Well, I was purty well floored. I had never owned a dollar before in my whole life, my father havin’ taken away every cent he had ever found on me; and I stood lookin’ at the coin, and hardly knowin’ what to do. The farmer stood lookin’ down at me with his eyes twinklin’, and after a minute, I handed the dollar back to him. ‘This is too much,’ I sez. ‘A dime would be plenty for the job, even if I didn’t like the hoss; but if my old man would find a dollar on me, he’d give me a beatin’ for hidin’ it from him, take it away, get drunk, and then give me another beatin’ for not havin’ another dollar.’
“So he asked me all about my father; and I told about him and about my mother bein’ dead, and the twinkle left his eyes and they grew moist, so ’at he had to wink mighty fast.
“He told me that his own boy was dead and his girl married, and that the’ wasn’t any children out at the big farm, and asked me if I wouldn’t like to come and live with him. He told me about all the hosses an’ the cows an’ the pigs, an’ that I could have a clean little room to sleep in, an’ plenty o’ food and clothes, and could go to school. It sounded like a fairy tale to me, and I sez, ‘Aw go on, you’re just joshin’ me’; but he meant it; so I got on the seat beside him, and as soon as we got out o’ town he let me drive the big gray hoss—and I entered into a real world more wonderful than any fairy tale ever was.