the sociable; but I hope an' trust my friends'll take a ticket fer
me."

"Bet your natchul!" said Muldoon, cheerfully, and the horses
scattered before us, trotting into the ravine.

Next morning we sent back to the livery-stable what was left of the
yellow horse. It seemed tired, but anxious to go.





THE SHIP THAT FOUND HERSELF


It was her first voyage, and though she was but a cargo-steamer
of twenty-five hundred tons, she was the very best of her kind,
the outcome of forty years of experiments and improvements in
framework and machinery; and her designers and owner thought as
much of her as though she had been the Lucania. Any one can make
a floating hotel that will pay expenses, if he puts enough money
into the saloon, and charges for private baths, suites of rooms,
and such like; but in these days of competition and low freights
every square inch of a cargo-boat must be built for cheapness,
great hold-capacity, and a certain steady speed. This boat was,
perhaps, two hundred and forty feet long and thirty-two feet
wide, with arrangements that enabled her to carry cattle on her
main and sheep on her upper deck if she wanted to; but her great
glory was the amount of cargo that she could store away in her