"Well--if a cow ever had a set of teeth in her upper jaw she'd be in a
side-show. They don't have 'em. This cow is only three--a young animal."
"That's true," Canby assented.
"I declare! It seems very curious," Wallie exclaimed, astounded. He
added, with all his importance punctured:
"I fear I have much to learn."
"This is a good place to learn it," observed the cow's valet.
Wallie bought the Jersey at private sale, and needless to say, paid its
full value.
"She'll be fresh in January," the man said to him.
Wallie looked bewildered, so the other explained further:
"She'll have a calf." He said it in such a confidential manner that
Wallie thought it was a secret and lowered his voice to answer:
"I'm glad of it." He had a notion that he had gotten the best of Canby
and wished that Miss Spenceley and The Colonial folk knew he had made a
shrewd bargain and gotten a herd started.
To Canby, who accompanied him on his tour of inspection, he said
eagerly:
"Where I wish your assistance is in the selection of my work-horses.
What would you advise? Have you a pair in mind, Mr. Canby?" Canby
reflected.
"That was a good horse Boise Bill was currying," he suggested.
"Yes, I noticed him. Is there another like him?"
"I believe he is one of a team."
Canby was correct in his surmise. The pair were well matched and,
impressed by their looks and strength, Wallie was delighted and
determined to have them if possible.
"Fourteen hundred is a good weight for your purpose--above that they are
apt to be clumsy," said Canby.
Wallie agreed enthusiastically.
"My own idea exactly. You see, I'll have to use them for driving as well
as working, until I can afford a motor."
The gathering was composed mostly of good, honest folk but plain ones.
They did, however, seem to know exactly what they were buying and why
they wanted it, and Wallie was fearful that a pair of such exceptional
horses would be run up to a figure beyond his resources. He wished they
would bring them out and end the suspense which was momentarily growing
greater as he thought of losing them.
Boise Bill drove the pair from the stable finally, just as a powerful
machine arrived and took a place in the outer circle. New arrivals had
no interest at the moment for Wallie, who was as nervous as a young
opera singer.
As Boise Bill walked behind the team slapping them with a rope-end to
drive them forward, it occurred to Wallie that it would have been much
simpler to have led them, but as every one had his own way of doing
things in this country he gave no further thought to the matter.
If he had not been so anxious and intent upon what was about to happen,
he might also have observed an interchange of knowing looks among the
gentlemen whose clothes were secured mostly with shingle-nails and
baling-wire.
The team looked all the auctioneer declared them to be as they stood
head to head--young, strong, perfectly matched--and he defied all
Wyoming to find a blemish on them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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