The other morning Faye was in a hurry to get out to a lumber camp and,
as I did not care to go, he decided to ride my horse rather than waste
time by arguing with the black as to which road they should go. Ben
always thinks he knows more about such things than his rider. Well,
Kelly led Bettie up from the corral and saddled and bridled her, and
when Faye was ready to start I went out with him to give the horse a
few lumps of sugar. She is a beautiful animal--a bright bay in
color--with perfect head and dainty, expressive ears, and remarkably
slender legs.
Faye immediately prepared to mount; in fact, bridle in hand, had his
left foot in the stirrup and the right was over the horse, when up
went Miss Bet's back, arched precisely like a mad cat's, and down in
between her fore legs went her pretty nose, and high up in the air
went everything--man and beast--the horse coming down on legs as rigid
and unbending as bars of steel, and then--something happened to Faye!
Nothing could have been more unexpected, and it was all over in a
second.
Kelly caught the bridle reins in time to prevent the horse from
running away, and Faye got up on his feet, and throwing back his best
West Point shoulders, faced the excited horse, and for two long
seconds he and Miss Bet looked each other square in the eye. Just what
the horse thought no one knows, but Kelly and I remember what Faye
said! All desire to laugh, however, was quickly crushed when I heard
Kelly ordered to lead the horse to the sutler's store, and fit a
Spanish bit to her mouth, and to take the saddle off and strap a
blanket on tight with a surcingle, for I knew that a hard and
dangerous fight between man and horse was about to commence.
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