"Not a bit of it," returned Sandboys. "Old Spavinshanks was that old gray horse Mr. Bingle paid ten dollars for thirty years ago, and has been earning fifteen dollars a day out of every summer every year since. I borrered him, though Bingle didn't know it, and that's how I came to get the big haul, and my, what a wet and muddy beast he was when he got back into the stable that night! He was so muddy they thought he was the black mare for a minute. [Illustration] "The way it came about was this. I got word one day that an old schoolmate o' mine I hadn't seen for two years was down at the Flume, and I thought I'd like to go down and see him. So I went to old Bingle, and asked him to let me have a horse and buggy to drive down there in, for, as you know, it's over five miles from here. Bingle looked at me calmly for a second, and said all right. The reg'lar fare down an' back is ten dollars. You can have the rig for six--four dollars off. He knew I couldn't pay it, and I told him so. Well what of it, says he. You don't think I'm keepin' a livery-stable for fun, do ye? No, says I, but I've done lots o' things for you for nothin'; you might do somethin' for me. Well I will, says he. Next winter, when there ain't no call for hoss-and-buggies, you can have the rig free. Now it'll cost you six dollars. That made me mad, an' as it was in days when I didn't think much about right or wrong, not havin' studied theeligy, as I have since, I made up my mind to have the rig, an' have it free. And when I make up my mind to a thing, it's as good as done. I had the rig when night came on an' I was through with my day's work, and old Bingle had locked up for the night and gone to bed--he generally got so tired figerin' up his profits at night he went to bed about half past eight--I sneaked down to the barn, took old Spavinshanks, harnessed him up to the buggy, and started off for the Flume. I spent a very pleasant evening with my friend Silas, and along about eleven o'clock I started back home again. Everything went well until I got up to within a half-mile of the lake, when it began to rain like buckets. I never see such a pour in all my life. [Illustration]