Argosy All-Story Weekly, Vol. 189, No. 4 — page 40: what you’re looking at

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

™ “up the river a piece. 510 “Good evenin’, suh!” he exclaimed, and shot out a gnarled brown hand with which he grasped and shook Teddy Armbister’s white one. ‘“‘ You’re the new owner here, ain't you? Mah name is Johnston. I live When I done heard you'd boughten this place I said to mah- se’f, ‘There’s a man who needs a good hoss—bad!’ I’m movin’ back to Jawgia nex’ week, and this yuh hoss is a fine ani- mal and a rare bargain.” Teddy, who knew little about horse- flesh, said: ‘I’m going to need a saddle horse, but he seems to limp in that front foot.” “ A stonebruise, suh—tain’t nothin’ but a stone bruise. Put him out to pasture two days and that limp’ll be done gone!” “Tm skeptical of horses that limp,” Teddy demurred.. ‘‘ My father knew a great deal about horses and I distinctly © remember hearing him say, more than once, ‘Never buy a strange horse that limps.’ ” “ Tl] have you know, suh,” the animal’s owner declared, drawing himself very erect with dignity not untinged with indignation, “that I am no hoss dealer. If you doubt my word, I'll put up a wager of fifty dol- lars in any Miami bank you wish to name, suh, that this hoss will lose that limp in- side of a week if you put him out to pas- ture.” Teddy looked the horse over again. “He looks thin,” he commented. “This hoss can stand fattenin’ up a bit, Tll admit; but his frame is sound. This oss here is as gentle as a kitten, as sound ‘as a dollar and as smart as a whip. “How much?” asked Teddy. “One hundred dollars, suh—and it breaks mah heart to give up this true friend and beautiful animal.” “How old is he?” Teddy wanted to know. “ Goin’ on five, suh—goin’ on five.” * Well—” Teddy thoughtfully began. He was interrupted by an alien sound upon the soft evening air, the sound of grunting. Teddy walked into the highway and looked down it, and it seemed to him, suddenly, as if the beautiful evening was full of hogs. An army of them was trot- ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. ting along, grunting, squealing and rooting at the wayside. Dust swarmed about them. ‘Get along there!” a shrill voice cried. Teddy shielded his eyes with one hand against the almost horizontal rays of the sun. He saw a slim figure in riding breeches, puttees and khaki shirt striding manfully along behind the hogs. But it was not a man; it was a girl— a young girl with nut-brown cheeks and dancing brown eyes and tip-tilted nose and jaunty bobbed hair. She carried under one arm a blacksnake whip. When a hog loitered behind its fellows, the girl plucked the whip from under her arm and sent its lash coiling above the back of the loiterer. It gave off a report as loud as a pistol shot and the pig, squealing, gal- loped to join the herd. ‘Get along there!” Teddy Armbister watched her with amazement. There was a vigor, a self- reliance about her that stirred him. The girl did not look up from the hogs until she was almost abreast of Teddy and the horse salesman. When she did see him, she straightened up and her Jips parted and her eyes lost their squint and became round. She did not smile. She looked at Teddy Armbister long and searchingly, then she glanced at Mr. Johnston. ‘“’Evenin’, Miss Woodstock,” said Mr. Johnston in a voice not overly hearty. The nut-brown girl nodded at him and looked again at Teddy. “You the one who just bought this farm?” she asked, and her voice was firm, almost hard. ‘““T’m the one, ily. “This old coot Eye to unload that horse on you?” “Now, look yuh, Miss Woodstock—” the horse’s owner protested. “Ts there anything the matter with him?” Teddy wanted to know. ‘* All depends on what you mean by any- thing,’ answered Miss Woodstock in her hard young voice. “ Aside from that horse being stone-blind in both eyes and having a sprung left foreleg and being spavined and having the heaves and.being approxi- ” ‘Teddy answered, cheer- Eomichbooks (E(9)