While the thought was rankling6 in my mind, the auctioneer came skurrying through the plaza7 on a black beast that had as many humps and corners on him as a dromedary, and was necessarily uncomely; but he was “going, going, at twenty-two!—horse, saddle and bridle8 at twenty-two dollars, gentlemen!” and I could hardly resist.
A man whom I did not know (he turned out to be the auctioneer’s brother) noticed the wistful look in my eye, and observed that that was a very remarkable9 horse to be going at such a price; and added that the saddle alone was worth the money. It was a Spanish saddle, with ponderous10 ‘tapidaros’, and furnished with the ungainly sole-leather covering with the unspellable name. I said I had half a notion to bid. Then this keen-eyed person appeared to me to be “taking my measure”; but I dismissed the suspicion when he spoke11, for his manner was full of guileless candor12 and truthfulness13. Said he:
“I know that horse—know him well. You are a stranger, I take it, and so you might think he was an American horse, maybe, but I assure you he is not. He is nothing of the kind; but—excuse my speaking in a low voice, other people being near—he is, without the shadow of a doubt, a Genuine Mexican Plug!”
I did not know what a Genuine Mexican Plug was, but there was something about this man’s way of saying it, that made me swear inwardly that I would own a Genuine Mexican Plug, or die.
“Has he any other—er—advantages?” I inquired, suppressing what eagerness I could.
He hooked his forefinger14 in the pocket of my army-shirt, led me to one side, and breathed in my ear impressively these words:
“Going, going, going—at twent—ty—four dollars and a half, gen—”
“And sold!” said the auctioneer, and passed over the Genuine Mexican Plug to me.
I could scarcely contain my exultation17. I paid the money, and put the animal in a neighboring livery-stable to dine and rest himself.
In the afternoon I brought the creature into the plaza, and certain citizens held him by the head, and others by the tail, while I mounted him. As soon as they let go, he placed all his feet in a bunch together, lowered his back, and then suddenly arched it upward, and shot me straight into the air a matter of three or four feet! I came as straight down again, lit in the saddle, went instantly up again, came down almost on the high pommel, shot up again, and came down on the horse’s neck—all in the space of three or four seconds. Then he rose and stood almost straight up on his hind18 feet, and I, clasping his lean neck desperately19, slid back into the saddle and held on. He came down, and immediately hoisted20 his heels into the air, delivering a vicious kick at the sky, and stood on his forefeet. And then down he came once more, and began the original exercise of shooting me straight up again. The third time I went up I heard a stranger say:
“Oh, don’t he buck, though!”
While I was up, somebody struck the horse a sounding thwack with a leathern strap21, and when I arrived again the Genuine Mexican Plug was not there. A California youth chased him up and caught him, and asked if he might have a ride. I granted him that luxury. He mounted the Genuine, got lifted into the air once, but sent his spurs home as he descended22, and the horse darted23 away like a telegram. He soared over three fences like a bird, and disappeared down the road toward the Washoe Valley.
I sat down on a stone, with a sigh, and by a natural impulse one of my hands sought my forehead, and the other the base of my stomach. I believe I never appreciated, till then, the poverty of the human machinery—for I still needed a hand or two to place elsewhere. Pen cannot describe how I was jolted24 up. Imagination cannot conceive how disjointed I was—how internally, externally and universally I was unsettled, mixed up and ruptured25. There was a sympathetic crowd around me, though.
One elderly-looking comforter said:
“Stranger, you’ve been taken in. Everybody in this camp knows that horse. Any child, any Injun, could have told you that he’d buck; he is the very worst devil to buck on the continent of America. You hear me. I’m Curry26. Old Curry. Old Abe Curry. And moreover, he is a simon-pure, out-and-out, genuine d—d Mexican plug, and an uncommon27 mean one at that, too. Why, you turnip28, if you had laid low and kept dark, there’s chances to buy an American horse for mighty29 little more than you paid for that bloody30 old foreign relic31.”
I gave no sign; but I made up my mind that if the auctioneer’s brother’s funeral took place while I was in the Territory I would postpone32 all other recreations and attend it.
After a gallop33 of sixteen miles the Californian youth and the Genuine Mexican Plug came tearing into town again, shedding foam-flakes like the spume-spray that drives before a typhoon, and, with one final skip over a wheelbarrow and a Chinaman, cast anchor in front of the “ranch.”
Such panting and blowing! Such spreading and contracting of the red equine nostrils34, and glaring of the wild equine eye! But was the imperial beast subjugated35? Indeed he was not.
His lordship the Speaker of the House thought he was, and mounted him to go down to the Capitol; but the first dash the creature made was over a pile of telegraph poles half as high as a church; and his time to the Capitol—one mile and three quarters—remains unbeaten to this day. But then he took an advantage—he left out the mile, and only did the three quarters. That is to say, he made a straight cut across lots, preferring fences and ditches to a crooked36 road; and when the Speaker got to the Capitol he said he had been in the air so much he felt as if he had made the trip on a comet.
In the evening the Speaker came home afoot for exercise, and got the Genuine towed back behind a quartz37 wagon38. The next day I loaned the animal to the Clerk of the House to go down to the Dana silver mine, six miles, and he walked back for exercise, and got the horse towed. Everybody I loaned him to always walked back; they never could get enough exercise any other way.
Still, I continued to loan him to anybody who was willing to borrow him, my idea being to get him crippled, and throw him on the borrower’s hands, or killed, and make the borrower pay for him. But somehow nothing ever happened to him. He took chances that no other horse ever took and survived, but he always came out safe. It was his daily habit to try experiments that had always before been considered impossible, but he always got through. Sometimes he miscalculated a little, and did not get his rider through intact, but he always got through himself. Of course I had tried to sell him; but that was a stretch of simplicity39 which met with little sympathy. The auctioneer stormed up and down the streets on him for four days, dispersing40 the populace, interrupting business, and destroying children, and never got a bid—at least never any but the eighteen-dollar one he hired a notoriously substanceless bummer to make. The people only smiled pleasantly, and restrained their desire to buy, if they had any. Then the auctioneer brought in his bill, and I withdrew the horse from the market. We tried to trade him off at private vendue next, offering him at a sacrifice for second-hand41 tombstones, old iron, temperance tracts—any kind of property. But holders42 were stiff, and we retired43 from the market again. I never tried to ride the horse any more. Walking was good enough exercise for a man like me, that had nothing the matter with him except ruptures44, internal injuries, and such things. Finally I tried to give him away. But it was a failure. Parties said earthquakes were handy enough on the Pacific coast—they did not wish to own one. As a last resort I offered him to the Governor for the use of the “Brigade.” His face lit up eagerly at first, but toned down again, and he said the thing would be too palpable.
Just then the livery stable man brought in his bill for six weeks’ keeping—stall-room for the horse, fifteen dollars; hay for the horse, two hundred and fifty! The Genuine Mexican Plug had eaten a ton of the article, and the man said he would have eaten a hundred if he had let him.
I will remark here, in all seriousness, that the regular price of hay during that year and a part of the next was really two hundred and fifty dollars a ton. During a part of the previous year it had sold at five hundred a ton, in gold, and during the winter before that there was such scarcity45 of the article that in several instances small quantities had brought eight hundred dollars a ton in coin! The consequence might be guessed without my telling it: peopled turned their stock loose to starve, and before the spring arrived Carson and Eagle valleys were almost literally46 carpeted with their carcases! Any old settler there will verify these statements.
I managed to pay the livery bill, and that same day I gave the Genuine Mexican Plug to a passing Arkansas emigrant47 whom fortune delivered into my hand. If this ever meets his eye, he will doubtless remember the donation.
Now whoever has had the luck to ride a real Mexican plug will recognize the animal depicted48 in this chapter, and hardly consider him exaggerated—but the uninitiated will feel justified49 in regarding his portrait as a fancy sketch50, perhaps.
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1
perpendicular
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| adj.垂直的，直立的；n.垂直线，垂直的位置 | |
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2
puff
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| n.一口(气)；一阵(风)；v.喷气，喘气 | |
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trotted
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| 小跑，急走( trot的过去分词 )； 匆匆忙忙地走 | |
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4
gallantly
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| adv. 漂亮地，勇敢地，献殷勤地 | |
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gracefully
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| ad.大大方方地；优美地 | |
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6
rankling
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| v.（使）痛苦不已，（使）怨恨不已( rankle的现在分词 ) | |
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7
plaza
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| n.广场，市场 | |
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8
bridle
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| n.笼头，束缚；vt.抑制，约束；动怒 | |
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9
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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10
ponderous
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| adj.沉重的，笨重的，(文章)冗长的 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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12
candor
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| n.坦白，率真 | |
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13
truthfulness
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| n. 符合实际 | |
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forefinger
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| n.食指 | |
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15
buck
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| n.雄鹿，雄兔；v.马离地跳跃 | |
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16
frenzy
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| n.疯狂，狂热，极度的激动 | |
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exultation
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| n.狂喜，得意 | |
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18
hind
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| adj.后面的，后部的 | |
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desperately
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| adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地 | |
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20
hoisted
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| 把…吊起，升起( hoist的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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21
strap
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| n.皮带，带子；v.用带扣住，束牢；用绷带包扎 | |
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22
descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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23
darted
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| v.投掷，投射( dart的过去式和过去分词 )；向前冲，飞奔 | |
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24
jolted
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| （使）摇动， （使）震惊( jolt的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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25
ruptured
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| v.（使）破裂( rupture的过去式和过去分词 )；（使体内组织等）断裂；使（友好关系）破裂；使绝交 | |
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26
curry
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| n.咖哩粉，咖哩饭菜；v.用咖哩粉调味，用马栉梳，制革 | |
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27
uncommon
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| adj.罕见的，非凡的，不平常的 | |
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turnip
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| n.萝卜，芜菁 | |
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29
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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30
bloody
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| adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染 | |
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31
relic
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| n.神圣的遗物，遗迹，纪念物 | |
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32
postpone
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| v.延期，推迟 | |
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33
gallop
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| v./n.(马或骑马等)飞奔；飞速发展 | |
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34
nostrils
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| 鼻孔( nostril的名词复数 ) | |
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35
subjugated
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| v.征服，降伏( subjugate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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36
crooked
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| adj.弯曲的；不诚实的，狡猾的，不正当的 | |
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37
quartz
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| n.石英 | |
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wagon
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| n.四轮马车，手推车，面包车；无盖运货列车 | |
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39
simplicity
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| n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯 | |
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40
dispersing
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| adj. 分散的 动词disperse的现在分词形式 | |
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41
second-hand
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| adj.用过的，旧的，二手的 | |
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42
holders
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| 支持物( holder的名词复数 )； 持有者； （支票等）持有人； 支托（或握持）…之物 | |
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43
retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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44
ruptures
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| n.（体内组织等的）断裂( rupture的名词复数 )；爆裂；疝气v.（使）破裂( rupture的第三人称单数 )；（使体内组织等）断裂；使（友好关系）破裂；使绝交 | |
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45
scarcity
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| n.缺乏，不足，萧条 | |
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46
literally
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| adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实 | |
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47
emigrant
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| adj.移居的，移民的；n.移居外国的人，移民 | |
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48
depicted
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| 描绘，描画( depict的过去式和过去分词 )； 描述 | |
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49
justified
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| a.正当的，有理的 | |
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50
sketch
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| n.草图；梗概；素描；v.素描；概述 | |
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