The road seemed to pass through a region of large farms, offering few
opportunities for selling books, the houses being so far apart, but Eliph' knew
the small settlement of Clarence was a few miles farther on, and he was carrying
enlightenment to the benighted.  He glowed with missionary zeal.  In his eagerness
he thoughtlessly slapped the reins on the back of Irontail. 

Instantly the plump, gray tail of the horse flashed over the rein and clamped it
fast.  Eliph' Hewlitt leaned over the dashboard of his buggy and grasped the hair
of the tail firmly.  He pulled it upward with all his strength, but the tail did
not yield.  Instead, Irontail kicked vigorously.  Eliph' Hewlitt, knowing his
horse as well as he knew human nature, climbed out of the buggy, and taking the
rein close by the bit led Irontail to the side of the road.  Then he took from
beneath the buggy seat a bulky, oil-cloth-wrapped parcel and seated himself near
the horse's head.  There was no safety for a timid driver when Irontail had thus
assumed command of the rein.  There was no way to get a rein from beneath that
tail but to ignore it.  In an hour or so Irontail would grow forgetful,
carelessly begin flapping flies, and release the rein himself. 

Eliph' Hewlitt unwrapped the oilcloth from the object in enfolded.  It was a
book.  It was Jarby's 'Encyclopedia of Knowledge and Compendium of Literature,