MOTHER AND CHILD ARE WELL.
767
casionally on his way to New
York, would pass Snediker's, and do it in such a way that the spokes of
his sulky were quite invisible—in fact, there was something so promising
about the animal's gait, that it provoked a veteran of the turf to inquire
“who owned that ‘ere horse?” Upon being told it was a parson's, he assumed
a thoughtful look, and internally worked out this apparently natural
problem, “ Ef a Methodist preacher can get that ‘ere animal down to
two forty-five, I think, with my laming, I could knock off sixteen
seconds;” and thus assured, he very soon paid an extra handsome price for
the horse, and put him in “ scientific training.” The result was perfectly
overwhelming to the jockey, for he found, by sad experience, that the
despised preacher had got all the work out the animal he was capable of;
and the jockey, contrary to his former habits, never allows preachers
to be spoken of disrespectfully in his presence, coming to their rescue
with the remark, “that some on ‘em knows something, and that they
ain't so green as some people take ‘em to be.”
