A WALKING DELEGATE
"Pshaw, sis," said Nip, "what 's the sense in actin' so? You git a kiss reg'lar 's hitchin'-up time."
"Well, you need n't tell, smarty," said Tuck, with a squeal and a kick.
"I 'd heard o' kisses, o' course," Tedda went on, "but they had n't come my way specially. I don't mind tellin' I was that took aback at that man's doin's he might ha' lit fire-crackers on my saddle. Then we went out jest 's if a kiss was nothin', an' I was n't three strides into my gait 'fore I felt the boss knoo his business, an' was trustin' me. So I studied to please him, an' he never took the whip from the dash—a whip drives me plumb distracted— an' the upshot was that—waal, I 've come up the Back Pasture to-day, an' the coupé 's tipped clear over twice, an' I 've waited till 't wuz fixed each time. You kin judge for yourselves. I don't set up to be no better than my neighbors,—specially with my tail snipped off the way 't is,—but I want you all to know Tedda 's quit fightin' in harness or out of it, 'cep' when there 's a born fool in the pasture, stufin' his stummick with board that ain't rightly hisn, 'cause he hain't earned it."
"Meanin' me, madam? " said the yellow horse.
"Ef the shoe fits, clinch it," said Tedda, snorting. "I named no names, though, to be sure, some folks are mean enough an' greedy enough to do 'thout 'em."
"There 's a deal to be forgiven to ignorance," said the yellow horse, with an ugly look in his blue eye.
"Seemin'ly, yes; or some folks 'u'd ha' been kicked raound the pasture 'bout onct a minute sence they came —board er no board."
[60]
