The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1877-10-05

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tors, where had waited on and wor-
shipped him. He was the only accom-
plished boxer, fencer, and horseman |
had ever met, and he had taught me
how to shoot, TO throw the lariat, to
Jump on or over fleet horse in motion,
and many other feats, and had given
me an impetus towards better things
that | had not lost.
"What is the matter?" he said, "your
horses are rough-haircd and sckly,
and one is limping and the other cry
ing, and you look as if you were going
blind, lame and crazy. What docs it
all mean?'
"Why, it means that the doctor has
been specializing, lost his money, and
has been over-worked by an epidemic
and deep snow and lost his health, and
his team was all he had to sell, and they
are mortgaged to old Chambers, the
meanest man in Vermont, for seven
hundred dollars, and they won't bring
any more; and now the doctor has five
hundred to pay which he has hard work
to raise"
'Things do look rather blue, but |
guess we can straightcn them little.
| have left bid of hundred dollars
for your ycarling buck, and twenty-five
for the two-ycar-old, and | hear you
have some more at home, and Mich-
gan buyer has gone after them, and |
have written to the doctor not to sell
them until get there
"Will you take leaf from this tree
to that man who is exhibiting honey
and get tenth of teaspoonful?"
| returned with it and he put il on
the eyelid of the weeping eye.
He said:
"If had safe person with whom to
leave my horse, would ride with you."
just then James Conant, student
in college from our place, came forward
and said:
''Colonel Watson, believe; five
years ago you bought horse of my
father, very dark bay with peculiar
mark in the face. We called him Sc
lin. | would like to know what be-
came of him.
81 am not colonel, but the owner of
that horse is, and he thinks him the fl
nest of animals. | should like to have
my horse in the same hands that ham
died Selim so well when | bought him.
"To ride such a horse would be n
luxury that college student would
walk all day to earn and would rejoice
in for Il year. | think him the finest
horse ever saw. Why don't you en-
ter him for premium"
81 arrived too late, the lists were
closed"
Conant mounted, Watson got in the
buggy and took the reins, and the hors-
cs moved on, joining the line which
had walked around the ring since we
stopped.
As we parted from Conant, Watson
told him TO sit firm, and, giving sig
nal, in an instant his horse was trans
formed into a hurricane. lie challeng-
ed in the shrillest blast; our team re-
spondcd. Weeping and limping were
forgotten, and under the touch of a
master they were more like themselves
than they had been before for weeks.
Chambers, who was riding beauti-
ful bay few PAGES ahead, and had been
watching us with i'll concealed uneasi-
ness, now left the line and cainc back
and sternly demanded what | meant by
lending his horses to a stranger, and
struck at me with his riding whip, but
without reaching me. l replied:
"Thcy are not your horses until a
week from to-day, if ever Now, you
have no more to do with them than any
other coward"
We were in front of the stand. Wat
son turned out of the line, stopped and
said:
"What makes that horse limp" As
he said this he got out as if to examine
it.
at is none of your business" said
Chambers, and squirting his horse clos
er, he aimed vicious blow at him, also
with loaded whip.
Watson lodged it and he came lum
bering to the ground, and as he sprana
up Watson knocked him down again
and then, seizing his riding whip
switched him while he roared like
calf.
lie then passed his knife down TO tn,
hoof of the horse and holding up tn,
foot showed the protruding ends of
brass wire which had been the cause o
the lamcness.
II never saw that wire before. know
nothing about it," said Chambers.
"Well, somebody put il there, and yoi
2 were the only man who had any mo
, tive for doing it," said Watson, as HI
: threw the wire on the stage.
+ Judge Button, the president, said, /"
h let that fellow Chambers and Jim Haw
kins have span of my horses each {,
+ keep for their work when | went +
Florida, and they agreed together no
( to work them but to make me pay al
G the horses were worth for their keeI
{ ing them. James team | never say
G again, and Chambers / might bette
4 have let alone, as they had been shut II
n until they were delicate, useless, III
!. broken and vicious. The worst thing
A young horse can do is to do nothing
G That fellow is mean enough to do any
: thing"
+ Chambers had come up to make conn
e plant and had already tried TO enlis
S the sympathies OF the crowd. But h
now saw that he was too odious and h
= skunk back, and, listening to the threat
e oflynching he shrank away, and whe
e a little ways off he put spurs to hi
f horse and was soon out of sight.
: Conant came cantering into the ring
It having succeeded in entering "Texas,
: the horse on which he was mounted
n But Watson, who had bathed the on
l. horses foot and then examined I'll
others eye, called me to come and SCI
e and there, in the lower corner of the ey,
was bit of pine chip covered by festC
d that had maniiestly been the cause {
,e trouble with the eye. The chip ha
r, been placed in the upturned cyeli
IF and had produced trouble that coul
be cured at any moment and Chamber
re had maniiestly done ii with the hope
X getting the horses for a song.
&c The horses were now cured. FIR,
ii quent bathing removed the inflamm
ton. Watson's groom with an assstal
ct gave them a scientific grooming, worl
sr ing at them twelve hours of the nel
W twenty-four.
The story of the rascaly tricl
IN and sudden cure went through Il
e. crowd. The horses became great favo
if ties. DIR. Harwood was great favorit
Id and two of his classmates i'm medic
I'd study who were practicing in Middl
at bury, came up and rode behind h
team. They brought up at the Regi