very sick; in fact, dying, as all save Sam thought. As every man in Ovid prided himself upon his knowledge of veterinary science, the whole community stirred when it was spread abroad that there was an equine patient to practise upon. 

 Oscar Randall took the dim lantern from the table and went out. He returned, and all awaited his opinion. 

 "Well, Os?" said Jack Mackinnon. 

 "If that was my horse—which she ain't, of course—I'd shoot her," said Oscar, deliberately. 

 "Shoot her!" said Jack Mackinnon: "shoot her! Don't you do it, Mister Symmons. Why, there was old Mr. Pierson wot I worked for in Essex, he had an old mare, most dreadful old and most terrible sick—sick for months. One day we drawed her out in a field, to die easy and so's she'd be easy to bury. Well, by George! she got up, and old Mr. Pen—him wot I worked for as has the dairy farm—he came along, and he says to Mr. Pierson, says he, 'Wot'll you take for the mare?'  'Twenty-five dollars,' says the old man.  'She's my mare, then,'  says Mr Pen; 'I'll give you my note for her.'  So Mr. Pen took her home and drove her in his milk-cart: and that spring he sold her two colts for a hundred dollars apiece, and in the fall he got two hundred dollars for a little black one; and Mr. Ellis, wot keeps tavern, he bought another pair of 'em in winter, and gave a sorrel horse and a double cutter for 'em. I tell you, she was a good old mare that, and we drug her out to die at old Mr. Pierson's, wot I worked for in Essex, and old Mr. Pen, wot keeps the dairy farm, he came along, and says, 'Wot'll you take for the mare?'  And—" 

 "Oh, shut up! Draw it mild, Jack," said Oscar, irascibly. 

 "Sam," said Hiram Green, slowly, "have you tried Epsom salts? and ginger? and saltpetre? and sweet spirits of nitre? and rye? and asafoetida? and bled her? and given her a bran-mash? and tried turpentine and salt?" 

 "Yes," said Sam, "I have, and she's no better." 

 "Now, Sam," said Green, impressively, "did you give her a 'Black's Condition Powder'?" 

 "No, I didn't," said Sam. 

 "I thought so," said Green, significantly. 

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