Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1894-12-14

new role in his contribution to the Deem
Der number of the Century, which he calls
"a Walking Delegate" The "Walking
Delegate" is a "wall-eyed yellow frame
house of a horse-a-ffty-cente Originally
from Kansas) sent up to board from a
livery stable in town" and turned out to
pasture with Rod and Rick, pair of Ham
bletonian road-horses; Nip and Tuck, aged
six, seal brown Blackhawks; Muldoon, an
ex-car horse; Marcus Aurelius Antoninus,
the "black buggy-horse", and, first and
last of all, the Deacon, dark iron gray
four year old son of Grandee, absolutely
safe, sure and steady-proof "against steam
rollers, grade crossings and street process
sions."
The occasion of the colloquy which forms
the story is the Sunday afternoon Sailing
time" according to the custom of Yer
mont" To reach the place "you must go
down by the brook that feeds the ram; up
through the sugar-bush where the young
maple underground closes around you like
a shallow sea; then follow the faint line of
an old county road running past two green
hollows fringed with wild roses that mark
the cellars of two ruined houses; then by
Lost Orchard where nobody ever comes eX-
cept in cider time; then across another
brook and so into the Back Pasture"
This route and the pasture itself are recog-
nized by the initiated as having an actual
existence on the farm of Mr.. Kipling's
brother-in-law, Mr.. b. S. Balestier, three
miles northwest of this village. So also
has ''the coupe" in which "we" rode to
the scene on the Sunday afternoon in ques-
ton. This conveyance "began life as
| blackboard, and we bought it for five dol
lars from a sorrowful man who had no
other possessions; and the seat came off
one night when we were turning a corner
| in a hurry; and after that alteration it
made a beautiful sailing machine, if you
| held tight, because there was nothing to
catch your feet when you fell out, and the
Stats ratified tunes" The coupe was drawn
| by Tedda Gabler, the bob-tail mare who
spilled her load twice on her way to the
pasture. The salt was dumped on the
clean rocks and the horses gathered round
TO enjoy and gossip over it while the two
humans dropped down in the shade on a
bed of pine needles. just as the last grains
of salt were disa pearing the Kansas horse
came numbering up to the evident disgust
and disturbance of the Deacon and his
companions. The mission of the Walking
Delegate Immediately appeared to be to
arouse his fellows ''to an abidn' sense o
|
outrages, TO convince them of their in
alienable title to the free air of heaven and
their duty to ''rise in their might and
shake off their "servitood'' TO the oppressol
man.
When Rick suggested that all of then
had tried "risin' in their might in theil
day, the Deacon gravely observed that a
"horse can't walk on his hind legs all the
time, (Which called out from Rick thi;
pointed little preachment:
"Not when he's jerked over on his back
fore he knows what fetched him. We've
all done it, Boney," said Rick "Nip an
Tuck they tried it, spite o what the Dea
con told 'em; an the Deacon he tried it,
spite O. what me an Rod told him; an mt
an Rod tried it, spite O. what Grandee told
us an | guess Grandee he tried it, spite
O. what his dam told him. It's the same
old circus from generation to generation
Colt can't see why he's called on to back
Same old rearin' on end-straight up,
Same old feelin that you've bested ZEN
this time Same old little yank at vel
mouth when you're up good an tall. Same
old Pegasus act wonderful where you'll
light. Same old rOp when you hit the
dirt with your head where your tail should
be, and your in'ards shook up like bran
mash Same old voice in your ear: WAL
We little fool, an what did you reckon tC
make by that? We're through with risin
in our might on this farm. We go to pole
er single, accordin' ez we're hitched."
The local flavor of the story appear:
when, two or three pages farther on, il
the course of their spirited discussion the
Deacon pointedly asks the Walking Dele
gate:
'Kin you keep your feet through the
West River Bridge, with the narrer- gage
comm in on one side, an the MOntrea
flyer the other, an the old bridge teeterin
bet Seen?n said the Deacon. kin yOT
put your nose down on the cow-catcher o.
a locomotive, an let 'em do 'Curfew shall
not ring tonight with the big brass bell?'
And again when Rod in the course of &
bit of moralzing tells of getting Unto g
tight corner, Lection day er Valley Fair
likes not, daown-taown when you're al
het an lathery, an pestered with flies, an
thirsty, an sick o. bein worked in an aou
tween buggies. Then somethin' whisper:
inside O your winkers, bringin' up all thai
talk abaout servitood an inalienable truck
an sech like, an jest then gun goes off
er your wheels hit, an'-waal, you're only
another horse as can't be trusted. Nv,
been there time an again"
In course of the discussion the Walking
Delegate had made proposition to ge
the two humans tout in the OPEN
then "Tll catch 'em by the back O. the
neck, an pile-drive 'em piece"
The righteous wrath of the Deacon anC
Rod and Marcus and Muldoon and the res
grew under this development, with the re
suit that they were all ready to "btf' hin
on the spot were it not that "these sam,
men you've been so dead anxious to xii
'u'd call us off" When the proceeding
had reached this point, 81 think we hat
better get home'' one of the humans sale
to the other, and we climbed into the
coupe, Tedda whinnying. as we bumped
over the lodges: "Well, I'm drellie sorry
can't stay fer the sociable; but l hope an
trust my friends III take ticket fer me-"
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