CHAPTER XYII. 



- It may be doubted whether the difficulty of buying 

 or selling a horse is greater ; but there is this essen- 

 tial difference, that in the latter case, the difficulty is 

 of a man's own creation. If he informs himself fair- 

 ly of its value, and asks a trifle less, there are few of 

 the large commission stables, at which, if the propri- 

 etor of them is a respectable man, he will not find a 

 speedy market ; if he insist on selling without a loss, 

 the expense of the keep will more than balance the 

 chance of meeting with a liberal purchaser. 



The ethics of horse-dealing are very peculiar ; 

 there is only one other case in which gentlemen ap- 

 pear, by a sort of conventional understanding, to be 

 excused for leaving their honesty behind them. I 

 have found to my cost, that no man thinks the worse 

 of a friend, for stealing an umbrella on a rainy day, 

 or palming off an unsound horse upon a neighbor. 



