A YANKEE TRICK.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 4174, 6 December 1884, Page 6 (Supplement)

A YANKEE TRICK.

: A Yanltco, performing a journey tbrough the back countries on' foot saw,,two'horses in a field as ho passed .along, one of which lie determined to borrow for a few miles, as he, was feeling very weary. .Accordingly, writing in pencil-on a slip of paper that ho would leave the beast at the next town on .the road, ho tied tho noto to one horso's fetlock, and mounting'''tho other, with merely a halter for a bridle, rodo off withhim. This transaction happening to, be observed,

an alarm was given to tho owner of tho animals, who, saddling the remaining one, without paying any attention to the noto attached to its leg, rode away after tho unknown borrower, or, as he considered him, perhaps, thief./"Unluckily for the Yankee, ho was mounted on a slow traveller compared with the steed he had left behind, and, he soon descried with some consternation a rider behind urging 'a powerful. beast along the road at full speed, evidently in -pursuit of him. Having neither whip nor spur, he found it a difficult matter to impel the horse he rode beyond its usual pace, and his-pur-suer, therefore, had every chance of coming up with him'directly. At this moment he perceived a cottago by the roadside at no" great distance, towards which, by blows and kicks, ho urged his steed somewhat faster, the farmer gaining on him nevertheless at every step. Reaching the door, ho dismounted, and went in. The farmer riding up immediately after in a tremendous passion, threw himself off his horse, leaving it by the side of its fellow, and ran into the cottage to seize and secure the thief. The Yankee, however, was prepored for him. Having slipped upstairs, he opened the front window which looked out upon tho road, and as the farmer ran into tho houselet himself down outside, mounted tho saddled horse, seized the other by the halter, and rode off securely with both.