Page:Patches (1928).pdf/82

 good chance to think it over and I guess he has discovered it doesn't pay."

"How strange those four cream colored patches on either side of him make him look," said Larry. "It looks almost as though they had been put on with a paint brush."

"I guess his mother thought she would mark him after a paint at first and then changed her mind."

"What is a paint?" inquired Larry.

"A paint is cowboy slang for pinto and pinto is the Mexican name for painted, so there you have it."

"Those patches on his side have suggested just the name for him," cried Larry, excitedly. "I am going to call him Patches."

"It is a good name," returned his uncle, "it describes him to a T. It is always well to have the name for a horse mean something."

So from that very day the bay gelding became Patches and it was a name which afterwards won for his owner many distinctions.

The following morning Larry and his uncle were once more out in the corral giving Patches another lesson. To Larry's surprise they had to go over all the old ground again but even he noticed that the bucking was less pronounced. In two more lessons under the skillful handling of Hank Brodie, Patches had become quite docile and Larry asked if he might ride him.