Page:Palo'mine (1925).pdf/88

 the blue sky above them and the great dreamy mountains all about them. Many a night Halsey had slept with his head pillowed upon the saddle and with Palo'mine only a few feet away munching oats. This was his best night lullaby: the sound of the fine horse munching his supper, while the whippoorwill called in the thicket, the great owl hooted in the distant woods, or perhaps a little stream sang its drowsy song that is so soothing to tired nerves and aching muscles.

Halsey little dreamed as he took these pleasant horseback trips alone through the mountains, what they were training him for.

He little imagined the stern drama in which he and Palo'mine should play an important part in the years to come.

Summer had come and gone in the Blue Grass country, and September skies brooded over the land. The corn was in the shock, the tobacco hung in the long low sheds, curing. The persimmons were ripe and the opossum fat. This meant that the