Let's
wait fur somethin' easier.'
"'Well, if you ain't a sure-thing better, I never gets my lamps on
one!' I says. 'Don't you want me to saw the legs off the rest of them
dogs to earn my five hundred? You must have forgot ole Friendless.
He's only got ninety-six pounds up! He'll tin can sure! He kin fall
down 'n' roll home faster than them kind of hosses.'
"But Harms won't take a chance, so I goes back to the track 'n' I was
sore.
"'That guy's a hot sport, not!' I thinks.
"I hates to tell Elsy the hoss he thinks is his won't win--he'd set his
little heart on it so. I don't tell him till the day before the race,
'n' he gets right sassy about it. I never see him so spunky.
"'As owner, I insist that you allow Alcyfras to win this race,' he
says, 'n' goes away in a pet when I tells him nix.
"The day of the race I don't see Elsy at all.
"'You ain't got a ticket to-day, 'n' you know the answer,' I says to
Lou Smith as the parade starts. He don't say nothin' but nods, so I
think he's fixed.
"When I come through the bettin' ring I can't believe my eyes. There's
Alcyfras at four-to-one all down the line. He opened at fifty, so
somebody has bet their clothes on him.
"'Where does all this play on Alcyfras come from?' I says to a booky.
"'A lost shrimp wanders in here and starts it,' says the booky.
"'What does he look like?' I says.
"'Like a maiden's prayer,' says the booky, 'n' I beats it out to the
stand.
"Elsy is at the top of the steps lookin' kind of haughty, 'n'
say!--he's got a bundle of tickets a foot thick in his hand.
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