"
"Why," Margaret spoke up, knowing that in the combat of a horse trade,
time would sail like a summer's cloud over the heads of the two men,
"you haven't come to trade stock, but to marry these folks."
"Oh, that won't take long," Brother Fetterson replied. "Have you got
that sorrel yet, Brother Starbuck?"
"She's out thar in the lot now, as slick as a mole."
"This is to be a double wedding," said Mrs. Mayfield, "and on the
hill-top, among the vines."
"A right pretty idea, Miss. Now this hoss I'm a riding, Brother
Starbuck, is a single footer, in fine condition and can run a quarter
with the best of them."
"I hearn that you swopped tuther day with Dave Somer's an' the hoss died
durin' of the night," said Jasper. "Is that so?"
"Brother Starbuck," the preacher replied, looking grave, "life is just
as uncertain among hosses as among men. We know not the day nor the hour
when the healthiest hoss may be called, as it were; and I could not of
course foresee the death of the hoss I swopped to Dave. I regretted
his--I might say demise, but it was no fault of mine.
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