SUMMER [Chap. 



his tow, and all his tinkerings about day after 

 day, week after week, and month after month. 

 There is the grease, and the jjole-evil, and the 

 ijlandei^s, and the strangles, and the /re/, and the 

 coughs, and tlie staggers, and the hotts, and va- 

 rious other nasty and troublesome diseases. 

 The ox knows none of these : he sets them all, 

 BoTT Smith's name-sakes and the whole, com- 

 pletely at defiance. If he get lamed by any 

 means, you have only to let him lay in a rough 

 field or a meadow and rest until he be well ; and 

 if the lameness be incurable, still he will fat with 

 very little trouble, and will, nineteen times out of 

 twenty, sell for more than he cost. The farrier's 

 bill is a manuscript of considerable length, wind- 

 ing up vdth a decent allegation in figures. You 

 will find not a single hall omitted ; and, generally 

 speaking, I say generally speaking, the cost of 

 the farrier is far beyond the good that he does *, 

 and in innumerable cases, you have at last to 

 send the horse to the dog kennel. Fourth : 

 a personage coming still more home to you ', I 

 mean the carter. A carter is the sole master of 

 the horses with which he goes ; and, in nine cases 

 out of ten, he is, as far as concerns them and their 

 labours, pretty nearly the master of their owner. 

 He must have his way pretty much as to quantity 

 and quality of food, as to hours of labour, and as 

 to various other things, in which, if you do not 



