Smith smiled.

Dad put one leg through the slip-rails and promised Smith, if he'd only come along, to split palings out of him.

But Smith did n't.

The instinct of self-preservation must have been deep in that man Smith.
Then Dad went home and said he would shoot the -- -- horse there and then, and went looking for the gun.

The horse died in the paddock of old age, but Dad never ploughed with him again.
Dad followed the plough early and late.