A brief nod was the only sign of recognition that was returned, but the chairs were not accepted.
"To what are we indebted for this early visit?" Fred asked.
"We have come, sir, for—"
The commissioner had proceeded thus far, when he seemed confused, and stopped. He may have felt that he was about to commit an unjustifiable outrage, and wished the colonel to share half of the responsibility.
"The fact is, sir," the military man exclaimed, most pompously, "we want your horses in the name of the government."
"Our horses, did you say?" Fred asked, with a sweet smile.
"That's what I said, sir," the colonel replied, swelling with bad blood and dignity.
"I think, that you are mistaken, sir, as we are not the owners of any such kind of animals," Fred answered.
"Why, what do you call them, sir?" the colonel cried, triumphantly, pointing to the unconscious brutes, who were eating their provender in the stable which we had built just adjoining the store.
"Those are horses, certainly, sir, but they don't belong to us."