Argosy, Vol. 120, No. 1 — page 151: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

A FALL, FROM GRACE. of glasses, saw the Rose colt stretch out, with her belly so close to the ground that Pappy’s feet seemed almost to drag. She saw her work cut out for her now. That. big black was in her way, and she set forth to prove that “the gray mare was the better horse!”’ They came down to the last quarter in a rush. Breecher had the inside and the gray was in his tracks. Pappy did not try to pass. It would have been suicidal. That big black had every advantage over the old mare of speed, stamina, and place. They came into the stretch, and the grand stand began calling the favorite home: ‘““ Come on, you Breecher! Come on!” Suddenly some piker who had risked a long shot on the Rose colt, saw her in the dust of the leading horse, and yelled: “Come on, you gray skate! Rose! Rose! Eat ’em up, daddy!”’. A roar of laughter burst from the crowd. Enos dashed the tears from his eyes. He was trembling all over. That big “black seemed running away from the Rose colt. Then—he remembered! Pappy was leaning forward, talking soothingly to the mare, petting her, coaxing her, but not: yet using the whip. His hat was lost somewhere back in the ruck where Rose had made her first bound. His thin gray hair streamed in the wind. So, too, did the tail of his shirt which, working out above his belt, snapped like a pennant. Breecher’s rider looked back and raised his whip. They were almost in line with the stables, not many yards away. And suddenly the door to Breecher’s stable swung open. _ The black saw it and thought of his man- ger. Before his rider could ply the raised ' whip he had swerved toward the outer bar- rier. It. was his one vice—a desire te get back to his quarters. He fell for the entice- ment of that open door! His rider yelled at him, and cut desper- ately with the whip, sawing, too, at the bit. Breecher kept on to the rail. He went up in the air like a kite, and before he came down to earth and recovered his stride, the _ Rose colt, running like a fox, passed him on the inside rail. 141 " The crowd shrieked like bedlam let Roose. Pappy plied the whip now, and the gray mare, straining every nerve and tendon, putting every ounce of her wonderful en- durance and spirit into the race, came down the stretch like a shot from a gun. Breecher recovered and came on glori- ously, responding nobly to the encourage- ment of the throng yelling his name. Had the race been ten yards longer he would have won. But the Rose colt and her scarecrow rider came under the wire a long nose in advance. Two days later Pappy and Enos, riding slowly along the county road, came within sight of the neglected field which they had been plowing for corn. The plow stood in the furrow where they had left it. The dove—or another—still mourned in the black gum-tree. Pappy drew rein and scanned the red field with discouraged mein. “‘T reckon we was bitin’ off more than we could chaw, Enos, son, when we struck out that land,” the proclaimed. “ We-all don’t need so much corn. And if we do chance to need a little more than we make this yere season, I reckon we can buy hit. “That’s thanks to you, Enos. I tole yo’. W’en you opened that Breecher’s stable door, yo’ won the race for us—sure did!” ‘““But—but, Pappy!” murmured Enos. “That stable do’ didn’t win you-all the three thousand from Major Blithedale.” “Nope. That yere was strategy,” chuck- led Pappy. ‘“ Major Blithedale and Mr. Garry ‘lowed they’d play me like I was a catfish. But I been a spo’tin’ man, Enos, son, fore them fellers had their milk-teeth cut. ‘“ Anyhow,” he pursued, “ we'll jest plant what we done got plowed. Seems too orn- ery to make a hawse what’s done earned us so must money to go back to plowin’.” He grinned widely, reflectively. “ And d’you know, Enos, son,” he said, ‘““T don’t reckon Mr. Blithedale, nor yet Mr. Garry, b’lieved the Rose colt was so good as she is, not by a long shot, or they wouldn’t have axed us over to Westhall to that meet.” --+™-€O) 1NOO SH A CO@