Peaches and Aunt Martha said very little about Bunch's new
relatives. They decided that "Uncle Cornelius" was eccentric and
rather interesting, but when they thought of "Aunt Flora" they both
got nervous and changed the subject.
When I suggested the buggy ride to Peaches she was delighted, and I
moseyed for the Ruraldene livery stable to get staked to a horse.
Anybody who has ever lived in a suburban town will doubtless recall
what handsome specimens of equine perfection may be found in the
local livery stable--not.
The livery man at Ruraldene is named Henlopen Diffenbingle, and he
looks the part,
I judged from the excited manner in which he grabbed my deposit
money that morning that he had a note falling due next day.
Then Henlopen shut his eyes, counted six, turned around twice,
multiplied the day of the week by 19, subtracted 17, and the answer
was a cream-colored horse with four pink feet and a frightened
face, which looked at me sadly, sighed deeply and then backed up
into the shafts of a buggy with red wheels and white sulphur
springs.
[Illustration: The answer was a cream-colored horse which looked
at me sadly.]
The livery man said that the name of the horse was Parsifal,
because it seemed to go better in German.
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