Page:A fool in spots (IA foolinspots00riveiala).pdf/19

 down in Kentucky. Clay's great grandson, by marriage, Major McDowell, owns this historic place. He is a well-mannered and distinguished host, and allowed me to fancy myself an artist then, and I made some sketches of his horses—he is a celebrated stock breeder."

"How I should enjoy seeing a good stock farm; that is one pleasure I am still on this side of," put in Willard. "Go on, I meant not to interrupt you."

"The Major often saddled two of his fine steppers and invited me to ride over the country with him. It was upon one of these jaunts that I met the girl. It happened in this way: We were in the blue grass valley just this side of the mountainous region. A turn-row, running through a field of broken sod was our route, to avoid a dangerous creek ford. With heartsome calls and chirruping, six plowmen went up and down the long rows. The light earth, creaming away from the bright plowshare, heaped upon their bare feet. I thought, 'What is so delicious as the feel of it—yielding, cool, electrical, fresh.' We stopped to watch them. They tramped sturdily behind the mules, one hand upon the plow-*handle, the other wrapped about with the line that ran to the beast's head. Presently, they all fell to singing a song—a relic, it must have been, from the