Page:1880. A Tramp Abroad.djvu/281

 "On the 9th of April he sold the saddle,—said he wasn't going to risk his life with any perishable saddle-girth that ever



was made, over a rainy, miry April road, while he could ride bareback and know and feel he was safe,—always had despised to ride on a saddle, anyway.

"On the 24th of April he sold his horse,—said 'I'm just 57 to-day, hale and hearty,—it would be a pretty howdy-do for me to be wasting such a trip as that and such weather as



this, on a horse, when there ain't anything in the world so splendid as a tramp on foot through the fresh spring woods and over the cheery mountains, to a man that is a man,—and I can make my dog carry my claim in a little bundle anyway, when it's collected. So to-morrow I'll be up bright and early, make my little old collection, and mosey off to Tennessee, on my own hind legs, with a rousing Good-bye, to Gadsby's.'

"On the 22d of June he sold his dog,—said 'Dern a dog, anyway, where you're just starting off on a rattling bully pleasure-tramp through the summer woods and hills,—perfect nuisance,—chases the squirrels, barks at everything, goes a-capering and splattering around in the fords,—man can't