"I goes over 'n' sets down on the track fence.
"'When you train a hoss fur a guy you do like he says, don't you?' I
says to myself. 'You don't own this hoss, 'n' the owner don't want him
hopped. They ain't but one answer--don't hop him.'
"'But look-a here,' I says back to myself. 'If you sees a child in
wrong, you tells him to beat it, don't you? It ain't your child, is
it? Well, this ole man ain't nothin' but a child. If he was, he'd let
you hop the hoss, 'n' make a killin' fur him.' I argues with myself
this way, but they can't neither one of us figger it out to suit the
other.
"'I wish the damned ole fool had somebody else a-trainin' his dog!' I
thinks after I've set there a hour 'n' ain't no further along 'n I was
when I starts.
"When it's gettin' towards post time, ole man Sanford hikes fur the
stand.
"'Skinny,' I says, 'amble over to the bettin' shed 'n' watch what the
ole man does. As soon as he's got his kale down, beat it back here on
the jump, 'n' tell me how much he gets on 'n' what the odds are.'
"In about ten minutes here comes Skinny at a forty shot.
"'He bets a hundred straight at fifteen-to-one! What do you know about
that?' he hollers.
"'That settles it!' I says. 'Chick, get them two bottles that's hid
under the rub-rags in the trunk! Now, ole Holler-enough,' I says to
the Tramp, 'you may be a imitation hoss, but we're goin' to make you
look so much like the real thing your own mother won't know you! .
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