"I'm barn-boss.

They ain't a man in th' country knows as much about hosses as I do.

We ain't had but two sick this fall, an' between you an' me, they's a skate lot.

You're a greenhorn, ain't you ?" "Yes," confessed Thorpe.
"Well," said Jackson, reflectively but rapidly, "Le Fabian, he's quiet but bad; and O'Grady, he talks loud but you can bluff him; and Perry, he's only bad when he gets full of red likker; and Norton he's bad when he gets mad like, and will use axes." Thorpe did not know he was getting valuable points on the camp bullies.
The old man hitched nearer and peered in his face.
"They don't bluff you a bit," he said, "unless you likes them, and then they can back you way off the skidway." Thorpe smiled at the old fellow's volubility.

He did not know how near to the truth the woodsman's shrewdness had hit; for to himself, as to most strong characters, his peculiarities were the normal, and therefore the unnoticed.