Horses -- Juvenile fiction; West (U.S.) -- Juvenile fiction
Then one day, a rider brought in a big raw-boned grey, remarking that
"_here_ was an outlaw," and an outlaw he was, sure enough. From his
Roman nose on up to his sunk, dead looking eyes, and taking in his
lantern jaws on to his thick neck and along with the rest of him, all
indicated the _natural_ outlaw, but what made him as a most valuable
horse for the rodeos, was in the how he could buck; that's all he
knowed, and like all natural outlaws that way, that's all he wanted to
know.
Right away, he was called "The Grey Cougar," the same as to try and
bring back the real Cougar. But there was no comparing the grey outlaw
with The Cougar, not when that last one had meant business. To begin
with, the grey horse was mean only because it was his natural instinct
to be that way, he didn't have the special ambition nor the brains that
The Cougar had. With the grey it was just jug headed orneriness, and in
no way could he compete with the mouse colored man killer, but he made
a fine outlaw just the same, a second best that'd do.
He managed to buck a few men off from the start, and right then is
when the Old Cougar begin sliding into the background, for it'd been
quite a spell since that pony had made a man ride for his money.--The
appearance of the grey outlaw had kinda marked the downhill start for
Smoky's career as a bucking horse, and then one day the end came sure
enough, and in a few minutes.
As usual, The Cougar was announced to the crowd, and them in the
grandstand who'd often heard but never seen that wicked pony in action
was naturally mighty interested as that notorious horse made his
appearance in the saddling chute. Many in the crowd had seen him buck
before, and some of them stopped breathing for a spell and while the
gate was opened, most anything was expected, from that horse, and all
of them that looked on felt sure of seeing something that'd come up to
their expectations, and then some.
The gate was opened, and out came a streak of a mouse colored horse
with a cowboy on top, and The Cougar, that famous outlaw, lined out
acrost the ground _on a long lope_.
* * * * *
Anywheres, and in any line, very little respect is ever showed for
a "has been." If The Cougar had fought and tore things up as he'd
once had, all would of been hunkydory, and the crowd would all been
satisfied, but the horse had come to the end of his fighting streak.
Not a jump was left in him, for the Smoky heart had growed over and
smothered the heart that'd been The Cougar's. He was a "has been" and
only willing to be the plain behaving Smoky again.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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