was in the vehicle. Indeed this began to be the prevalent opinion, for those at a short distance, so fleet was the horse, could not easily discern who, if any body was in the carriage. But both the riders, whom the black horse passed very nearly, agreed in this particular, that a sad looking man with a little girl was in the chair. When they stated this I was satisfied it was Peter Rugg. But what caused no little surprise, John Spring, one of the riders, he who rode Lightning, asserted that no earthly horse, without breaking his trot, could in a carriage outstrip his race horse; and he persisted with some passion that it was not a horse, but a large black ox. "What a great black ox can do," said John, "I cannot pretend to say; but no race horse, not even Flying Childers, could out-trot Lightning in a fair race."
This opinion of John Spring excited no little merriment, for it was clear to every one that it was a powerful black horse that had interupted the race; but John Spring, jealous of Lightning's reputation as a horse, would rather have it thought that any other beast, even an ox, had been the victor. However,
