Excerpt from Dwellers in the HillsOpposite me in the shadow of the tall hick ory timber the man Ump, doubled like a fin ger, was feeling tenderly over the coffin joints and the steel blue hoofs of the Bay Eagle, blowing away the dust from the clinch of each shoe-nail and pressing the ¿at calks with his thumb. No mother ever explored with more loving care the mouth of her child for evidence of a coming tooth. Ump was on his never ending quest for the loose shoe-nail. It was the serious business of his life.I think he loved this trim, nervous mare better than any other thing in the world. When he rode, perched like a monkey, with his thin legs held close to her sides, and his short, humped back doubled over, and his head with its long hair bobbing about as though his neck were loose-coupled somehow, he was eternally caressing her mighty withers, or feel ing for the play of each iron tendon under her satin skin. And when we stopped, he glided down to finger her shoe-nails.Then he talked to the mare sometimes, as he was doing now. There is a little ridge in the hoof, girl, but it won't crack, I know it won't crack. And, This nail is too high. It is my fault. I was gabbin' when old Hor nick drove it.On his feet, he looked like a clothes-pin with the face of the strangest old child. He might have been one left from the race of Dwarfs who, tradition said, lived in the Hills before we came.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.