Buskin

“ Superstitions respecting them are known in Brittany and the South of France.
{4} Miss Harriett W. Preston, in her article on Jasmin's Franconnette in the Atlantic Monthly for February, 1876, says: "The buscou, or busking, was a kind of bee, at which the young people assembled, bringing the thread of their late spinning, which was divided into skeins of the proper size by a broad thin plate of steel or whalebone called a busc. ”

“ The skin between the toes becomes dry and wholesome, and the squeezed, crippled appearance of the toes greatly alters for the better." [29]
Both the Greeks and Romans wore buskins, which reached to about the middle of the calf. These were variously ornamented and laced, and were usually lined with the skins of the smaller animals, the heads and claws being allowed to fall over the top by way of ornament. Buskins have, as a matter of fact, been{286} worn at all periods; several examples are given, notably in the portraits by Vandyke, of Lords John and Bernard Stuart (p. 287) . ”

“ Now when his father Michael Ducas was ousted from the throne, Queen Maria's son, Constantine Porphyrogenitus, doffed the red buskins of his own accord and assumed ordinary black ones, but Nicephorus Botaniates who succeeded his father as Emperor, bade him take off the black buskins and wear silk shoes of varied colours, as he felt some reverence for the young man, and liked him for his beauty and his high descent, for he grudged him indeed the splendour of entirely red buskins, but allowed him to have a few spots of red shewing in his woven shoes. ”

“ He was a typical bushman, not one of those tall, straight, wiry, brown men of the West, but from the old Selection Districts, where many drovers came from, and of the old bush school; one of those slight active little fellows whom we used to see in cabbage-tree hats, Crimean shirts, strapped trousers, and elastic-side boots―'larstins,' they called them. They could dance well; sing indifferently, and mostly through their noses, the old bush songs; play the concertina horribly; and ride like―like―well, they could ride. ”

“ I had forgotten for a moment the folk in the bush, and when a man stepped out of the thicket I pulled up my horse with a start.
It was a tall native, who carried himself proudly, and after a glance at me, stalked along at my side. He wore curious clothes, for he had a kind of linen tunic, and around his waist hung a kilt of leopard-skin. In such a man one would have looked for a ting-kop, [1] but instead he had a mass of hair, not like a Kaffir's wool, but long and curled like some popular musician's. ”

“ Maybe the shoe is on the other foot; and Buckskin is going to run away with him! Watch what happens, Bob!”
“Oh! look at the pony kick up!” gasped Bob. “But that’s a good rider, Frank. He sticks like a leech, and he may beat the horse at his own game!”
“Wait!”
Frank knew his horse. He had won a victory over the vicious little beast only after the longest fight recorded in the history of Circle Ranch. [Pg 60] And among the cow punchers there were few indeed who could stick on the back of Buckskin when he started his bucking tactics. ”

“ Buckskin felt the mysterious influence of the soundful silence, pricking his ears, listening, holding his breath to let it out in snorts, and Nance laughed at his uneasiness.
“Buckskin,” she said one day, as she lay stretched at length on a flat rock beside a boiling riffle, “you’re a bundle of nerves, a natural-born finder of fears. There isn’t a thing bigger or uglier than yourself in all the cañon—unless it’s a panther skulking up in the branches, and he wouldn’t come near for a fortune—though what could be fortune to a cougar, I wonder?” ”

“ Buckskin dared not disobey. Possibly he had in a measure satisfied his desire for revenge, and felt that he could afford to let the thief get away in a crippled condition.
“Good old chap!” said Frank, as he fondled the muzzle of the intelligent pony. “The rustler that gets you will have to be a better man than that one you just nibbled at!”
“Isn’t he a wonder, though!” declared the admiring Bob. “I never would have believed that a horse could be so smart. And if you hadn’t called him off, Frank, ten chances to one that fellow would have paid dearly for wanting to get our mounts.” ”

“ He did not like leaving Buckskin for so long, but he had a way of barricading him with chairs on the couch in the dining room that had answered very well when he had gone to visit Hobbs. After breakfast he imprisoned him thus, gave him Pegleg to play with, a bottle of milk and two biscuits for refreshment, and left Jock on the foot of the couch for company.
The ride to Brancepeth made him feel better, the invigorating air, the light rise and fall in the stirrups, the feel of the well-groomed horse beneath him. ”

“ Gun shot them."
Buckskin twitched from head to foot with excitement. He made inarticulate sounds of joy.
Fawnie came to the door of the millinery shop with a blue hat on her head. Did darling like it? Darling thought it was horrible and said so. It made her sallow. Then she came wearing a red one with black wings. Not so bad; but it was a little brown one he chose with a fur band; just like a little French hat, the milliner followed Fawnie to the door to say. It certainly became her, and she wore it when she left, carrying her old one in a paper bag. ”

“ I took the rubies, and stowed them below my shirt and next my skin. I remember taking stock of my equipment and laughing at the humour of it. One of the heels was almost twisted off my boots, and my shirt and breeches were old at the best and ragged from hard usage. The whole outfit would have been dear at five shillings, or seven-and-six with the belt thrown in. Then there was the Portugoose's pistol, costing, say, a guinea; and last, the Prester's collar, worth several millions.
What was more important than my clothing was my bodily strength. ”

“ They stand not above 30 Foot from the Butt: In the Thumb of their Right Hand, they use Rings of Bone, on which the String lies, when they draw it; and with the Thumb of their Left Hand, they draw the Arrow by a knot bearing outwards; far otherwise than they do with us. Their Butt is made of a Bank of sandy, gravelly Earth, raised about four Foot high from the Ground, and strongly surrounded with Boards. But the Bashaws, and those that have great Families, [167] train up their Servants in this Exercise, at their own Houses, where the more skilful teach the unexperienced. ”

“ Jock came to him through the pantry crawling on his belly.
What was wrong? For God's sake what was wrong? Buckskin! Buck!
He was lying, wedged, between the row of chairs and the couch. He was writhing—twisting. The whites of his eyes showed through the half-closed lids, his lips were blue.
Derek snatched him up and shook him. Buckskin! Waken up! Thank God, there came a flicker of those white eyelids!
Oh, for a woman! Any woman! Lottie Rain. . . . Miles away. . . . Mrs. Chard. He laid the child on the pillow and ran wildly through the house. ”

“ I always follow directions carefully. If more people would follow directions there'd be fewer mistakes made. Better take another sip before you go."
He meekly took another.
"Bah-bah—" said Buckskin, reaching up towards the bottle.
"Bless his heart," said Mrs. Machin, her pale lips relaxing into a smile, "he wants some. And a little taste would do him good, too. Whose pretty boy are you, eh? Whose pretty boy are you?" She shook her head at him and laughed.
3. Derek was now afraid to leave Buckskin alone. ”

“ With a basketful of the figs of the first tree he trudged to the nearest town, still clad in his peasant’s dress, and cried, ‘Fine figs! fine figs! who’ll buy my beautiful ripe figs!’
All the people ran out to see the new fruit-seller, and his figs looked so tempting that plenty of people bought of him. Among the foremost was the host of the [138] inn, with his wife and his buxom daughter, and every one of them, as they ate the figs their noses began to grow and grow till everyone of them had a nose fully a yard long. ”

“ The intending horse thief was indeed a clever rider. No other could have held his seat on the bare back of that jumping pony for half a minute, with only the assistance of a fragment of rope to give him support.
And it was the admiration Frank felt for the fellow’s grit that really kept him from resorting to his gun to wind matters up. Besides, Frank believed that in due time Buckskin would amply prove that he was able to take care of himself.
Sometimes the maddened pony would seem to have its four hoofs in the air at once. ”

“ He knew what that action meant, and that a keen knife was being drawn over the holding lariat.
Now Buckskin was free from his tether. He could be seen for the first time rearing in the air, as a cow pony always will when full of spirit, or excited.
Frank had thrown his rifle half way to his shoulder on the impulse of the moment. Then, as if on second thought, he let it drop again; and Bob actually believed he heard him give vent to a chuckle.
“Why don’t you shoot at him, Frank?” the latter cried, excitedly. “Look! he’s going to run away with your horse!”
“Is he?” answered Frank. ”

“ I may now spend the rest of the Day for the Health of my Body. Thus he returns late at Night from the Death of a Boar, Stag, or Bear, and betakes his wearied Limbs to rest, without Eating or Drinking. Let no Man then upbraid us with the want of Trajans, Varus’s, and Theodosius’s; those Miracles of the Ancients in our Days: I dare take my Oath, that there is more true Vertue in our Emperor, than there was in all of them put together. But the Admiration of so great a Man transports me: ’Tis not my Design to speak of his Merits, they would make up a Volume rather than an Epistle ”

“ Her clothes were simple compared with the planters' dames, but of a far more dainty fashion. She wore, I remember, a gown of pale sprigged muslin, with a blue kerchief about her shoulders and blue ribbons in her wide hat. As her hand lay lightly on my arm I did not think of my triumph, being wholly taken up with the admiration of her grace. The walk was all too short, for the Governor's lodging was but a stone's-throw distant. ”

“ He swam to the mill, talked to the peasants there, then returned and lay on his back in the middle of the pond, turning his face to the rain. Burkin and Alehin were dressed and ready to go, but he still went on swimming and diving. “Oh, my goodness!...” he said. “Oh, Lord, have mercy on me!...”
“That’s enough!” Burkin shouted to him.
They went back to the house. And only when the lamp was lighted in the big drawing-room upstairs, and Burkin and Ivan Ivanovitch, attired in silk dressing-gowns and warm slippers, were sitting in arm-chairs ”

“ Busch unites an uncommonly sharp eye with a marvellously flexible hand. Wild as his subjects generally are, he solves the greatest difficulties as easily as though they were child’s play. His heroes appear in situations of the most urgent kind, which place their bodily parts in violent and exceedingly uncomfortable positions: they thrash others or get thrashed themselves, they stumble or fall. ”

“ Surely no woman with a heart in her body could refuse him when he told her of yesterday's fright.
He had Bill bring the red sleigh to the door. When Buckskin heard the bells jingling and saw Derek fetching his rabbit skin coat and cap with the earlugs, he could hardly contain himself for joy. He kicked his heels and shouted. He showed all his pearl-like teeth, and Jock, to add to the gaiety, leaped to the couch, put his nose to the window-pane and gave forth a volley of short, mad barks. ”

“ On their forehead is placed a silver-gilt cone of considerable height, studded with stones of no great value.
These Janissaries generally came to me in pairs. When they were admitted to my dining room they first made a bow, and then came quickly up to me, all but running, and touched my dress or hand, as if they intended to kiss it. After this they would thrust into my hand a nosegay of the hyacinth or narcissus; then they would run back to the door almost as quickly as they came, taking care not to turn their backs, for this, according to their code, would be a serious breach of etiquette. ”

“ Burton returned her look with keen interest. Had she been listening at the window?
"How do you do, Mrs. Bussey? And how's Ben? I'm coming up to see him in a minute. I have a little present from an old Indian who used to know him."
Mrs. Bussey relaxed into a smile, and hurried away, and Burton went on to the surgery to find the doctor.
"I don't dare say that my soul is my own in this house without first making sure that Mrs. Bussey won't overhear me and betray the damaging secret to my dearest enemy," he said, as he shook hands. "She is always at hand when I am indiscreet. ”

“ I: “Bucher. If your Serene Highness would only sometimes let me know through him what you desire and intend. One is accustomed to some extent to your Serene Highness’s way of thinking, and can guess a great deal; nevertheless, new and unexpected ideas may frequently arise of which some indication should be given me.”
He: “Yes, Bucher. A real pearl! Well, put yourself in communication with him. A very able man, if I can only keep him; but he seems to me to be in anything but good health.” ”