he had, and no great stick to brag on either; says I, Joe Brown what do you ax for that are horse?  Two hundred dollars, says he; well says I, I will take him out and try him, and if I like him I will keep him.  So I shows our Carolina Lord the horse, and when he gets on him, says I, dont let him trot as fast as he can, resarve that for a heat; if folks find out how everlastin fast he is, they’d be afeared to stump you for a start.  When he returned, he said he liked the horse amazinly, and axed the price; four hundred dollars, says I, you cant get nothin special without a good price, pewter cases never hold good watches; I know it, says he, the horse is mine.  Thinks I to myself, that’s more than ever I could say of him then any how.

Well, I was goin to tell you about the soup—­says the Major its near about dinner time, jist come and see how you like the location.  There was a sight of folks there, gentlemen and ladies in the public room (I never seed so many afore except at commencement day,) all ready for a start, and when the gong sounded, off we sott like a flock of sheep.  Well, if there warnt a jam you may depend—­some one give me a pull, and I near abouts went heels up over head, so I reached out both hands, and caught hold of the first thing I could, and what should it be but a lady’s dress—­well, as I’m alive, rip went the frock, and tare goes the petticoat, and when I righted myself from my beam eends, away they all came home to me, and there she was, the pretty critter, with all her upper riggin standin as far as her waist, and nothin left below but a short linen under garment.  If she didn’t scream, its a pity, and the more she screamed the more folks larfed, for no soul could help larfin, till one of the waiters folded her up in a table cloth.  What an awkward devil you be, Slick, says the Major, now that comes of not falling in first, they should have formed four deep, rear rank in open order, and marched in to our splendid national air, and filed off to their seats right and left shoulders forward.  I feel kinder sorry, too, says he, for that are young heifer, but she shewed a proper pretty leg tho’ Slick, didn’t she—­I guess you don’t often get such a chance as that are.  Well I gets near the Major at table, and afore me stood a china utensil with two handles, full of soup, about the size of a foot tub, with a large silver scoop in it, near about as big as a ladle of a maple sugar kettle.  I was jist about bailing out some soup into my dish, when the Major said fish it up from the bottom, Slick,—­well, sure enough, I gives it a drag from the bottom, and up come the fat pieces of turtle, and the thick rich soup, and a sight of little forced meat balls of the size of sheep’s dung.  No soul could tell how good it was—­it was near about as handSUM as father’s old genuine particular cider, and that you could feel tingle clean away down to the tip eends of your toes.  Now, says the Major, I’ll give you, Slick, a new wrinkle on your horn.