summer's over, at my camp. My aunt, Miss Alathea, will be here, and our
old friend, Colonel Sandusky Doolittle. He's a great horseman."

Instantly the girl showed vivid interest, not, as he had thought she
would, in his aunt, Miss Alathea, but in the Colonel from the
Bluegrass, who also was a horseman.

"Horseman, is he?" she exclaimed, her eyes alight.

"Yes; he's famous as a judge of horses."

"At them races that they tell about? Oh, I'd like to see one of them
races!"

"Yes, he goes to races, everywhere, although he always means to stop
immediately after the next one. It has been the races which have kept
him poor and kept him single."

"How've they kept him poor?"

He told her about betting, while she listened, wide-eyed with amazement
at the mention of the sums involved.

"How've they kept him single?"

"He's been in love with my Aunt Alathea for a good many years, but she
won't marry him until he keeps his promise to avoid the race-tracks."

"What makes your aunt hate hawsses?"