I finely got home with the critter, but I thought one time I'd either hev to lead him or spend the night on the East road.

He balked five sep'rate times, varyin' in length, an' it was dark when we struck the barn." "I should hev thought you'd a wanted to kill him," said Mrs.Bixbee; "an' the fellers that sold him to ye, too." "The' _was_ times," David replied, with a nod of his head, "when if he'd a fell down dead I wouldn't hev figgered on puttin' a band on my hat, but it don't never pay to git mad with a hoss; an' as fur 's the feller I bought him of, when I remembered how he told me he'd stand without hitchin', I swan! I had to laugh.

I did, fer a fact.

'Stand without hitchin'!' He, he, he!" "I guess you wouldn't think it was so awful funny if you hadn't gone an' stuck that horse onto Deakin Perkins--an' I don't see how you done it." "Mebbe that _is_ part of the joke," David allowed, "an' I'll tell ye th' rest on't.

Th' next day I hitched the new one to th' dem'crat wagin an' put in a lot of straps an' rope, an' started off fer the East road agin.
He went fust rate till we come to about the place where we had the fust trouble, an', sure enough, he balked agin.