"'Why, Frank, five hundred won't buy a hair out of his tail . . . _what do I hear_?' says Pappy.
"'Na-ow listen, Tom, if you want the little hoss, cut out this triflin' an' bid for him,' says Pappy. '_What do I hear_?'
"'That's just a nice little start . . . _what do I hear_?' says Pappy, 'n' I goes into a trance.
"I don't come to till I hears Pappy sing out:
"'So-o-ld to you for sixteen thousand dollahs, Mr. Humphrey, _an' you never bought a cheaper one_!'
"It's a wonder I ain't run over gettin' to the depot. I don't know where I'm at. I just keeps sayin' 'sixteen thousand--sixteen thousand--' over 'n' over to myself. I beats it out to the hospital when I gets back, to tell Micky. They're goin' to let him out in a day or so 'n' Micky's settin' up in a chair with wheels to it.
"'Give a guess what Hamilton brings in the Big Eastern,' I says to him.
"'Sixteen thousand bucks!' I says. 'How does that lay on your stummick?'
"'Hell!' says Micky. 'That ain't nothin'--look-a-here!'
"He shoves a paper at me he's been holdin' in his mitt. It's a ridin' contract fur two years with the Ogden stable at ten thousand a year.
"So you see, just like I tells you," Blister wound up, "they lay down real money fur _class_."
"The man who bought the horse," I said, "certainly got what he paid for--everybody knows _now_ that Hamilton has class. But how about the boy?"
"Did you ever see Vincent ride?" Blister looked at me inquiringly.
"I saw him ride once in the English Derby," I replied. "Why?"
"Well," said Blister, "his mother lives in New York in a brownstone house he bought her, with two Swede girls to do as much work as she'll let 'em. When he comes home, she calls him 'Micky.' Is there class to him?"
"What's all them rubes got ribbons on 'em fur?" asked Blister.
I followed his gaze to a group of variously garbed men and women who had just rounded the paddock, and who slowly bore down upon us as they drifted from stall to stall in a haphazard inspection of the great racing plant at Latonia. Prominent upon the person of each member of this party was a bountiful strip of yellow ribbon. The effect was decidedly gay.
I had encountered similar ribbons in every nook and cranny of the Queen City during the last few days, and I knew that each bore in thirty-six point Gothic condensed, the words, "Ohio State Grange."