An Eye for an Eye by Clarence Darrow — Read

When I made up my mind to quit the railroad I looked ‘round for somethin' else to do. It was kind of hard times just then and a good many were out of work and I couldn't find anything that suited me. Of course I never had much schoolin' and ‘twa'n't every kind of job I could hold anyhow. I went back out to the stock yards, but they was layin' off men and there wa'n't anything there. One mornin' I went over to see Sol Goldstein. He was a nice old man that we used to buy potatoes of. He told me that he was gettin' so old and kind of sick that he thought he'd have to give up peddlin' and let his boys take care of him the rest of his time. He said he didn't think it would be very long anyhow, and they could do that much for him so long as he'd done so much for them. He said as I hadn't any job why didn't I buy his horse and express wagon and go to peddlin'. I could take his license, that hadn't run out yet, and go right along over his route.

I told him I hadn't any money to buy his horse and wagon with, but he told me that didn't make any difference, I could pay for ‘em when I earnt the money. So I made a bargain; got the horse and wagon and harness and two old blankets for fifty dollars. Of course they wa'n't worth much: the horse had a ringbone and the heaves and kind of limped in one of its hind legs. Goldstein said that was on account of a spavin, but he told me there was another one comin' on the other hind leg and as quick as that got a little bigger he'd stop limpin' because he couldn't favor both hind legs to once. Goldstein said the ringbone had been killed and the heaves wouldn't bother him much. All I had to do was to wet the hay before I fed him. So I bought the rig. I didn't know nothin' about horses but I knew what Goldstein said was all right for we'd been friends a long time.