TRAINING FROM A HAYLOFT 221 



her chance for future events by being second. Still the 

 performance was creditable. 



Travelling long distances, and running for stakes so 

 wretched as those he occasionally won, could not by any 

 arithmetical conjuring be made to pay. I am told that 

 after an unsuccessful day, he and his horses would vanish 

 from the course without the usual ceremonies at parting, 

 to turn up at the next country meeting, wherever that 

 might happen to be. I confess that the whole business 

 is as inexplicable to me as that of the mystical dealer in 

 brooms, who, professing to take the least profit possible 

 on the wares he disposed of, found himself yet under- 

 sold by a rival. Anxious to get to the bottom of the 

 matter, he sought his opponent out and asked him how 

 it was. 



1 1 cannot do it for the money,' he said, ' and I steal 

 the stuff;' but was completely satisfied with the answer 

 that the other t stole them ready made,' and so at one 

 and the same time saved trouble and expense. But if I 

 am mystified, I dare say Mr. Parr's faithful henchman, 

 George Hall, if he had been consulted, or many of the 

 hotel proprietors whom his master honoured with his 

 patronage, might have considerably enlightened us on 

 this interesting subject. 



So, again, with training, as Mr. Parr conducted it, the 

 business is a mystery to me. Training, like everything 

 else, is easy to do when you know how to do it ; and so 

 long as things go smoothly, one man can do it as well as 

 another. But when everything is wrong, and unknown 

 difficulties present themselves in every direction, you 

 must understand your business to be able to overcome 

 them, and this is just what the unskilful cannot do. I 

 once knew an elderly lady who confidently assured me 

 that her son was so clever that he could attend to his 



