72 STABLE ECONOSir. 



about the horse, and manage some of the stable operations 

 better than he could at the beginning. In a few years he may 

 be an excellent groom. But, is it not singular ? he has never 

 in all that time made any effort to learn his business. He has 

 had work to do, and it was done, not because he desired to 

 learn how to do it, but because it could not be left undone. 

 The horse was to clean, and when cleaned, the boy was 

 thankful that his task was finished, and he never did it when 

 he could avoid it. If he had been anxious to learn his busi- 

 ness quickly and well, he ought to have done a great deal 

 more. Instead of contriving expedients to escape work, he 

 ought to have done the work ten times for once. He never 

 brushed a horse when he did not need brushing, nor made a 

 bed twice when once would serve. 



If the boy has any desire to learn, or if any desire can be 

 excited, let him see the stable and the stable-work of a good 

 groom. Show him the horse's skin, how beautiful and pure 

 it is ; the stable, how clean and orderly , and the bed, how 

 neatly and comfortably it is made. Let him see the man at 

 work, and make him understand that his dexterity was acquir- 

 ed by practice. For the operations, after seeing them once 

 or twice performed, practice is, everything. Two dressings 

 every day may be all the horse requires, but four will do him 

 no harm. The bed may be made twenty times a-day ; and 

 everything which practice teaches should be done often, if it 

 is ever to be done well. In the ordinary course of things the 

 boy may become an expert groom in four or five years. By 

 systematic and persevering efforts, he may be as expert in six 

 or eight months. There are many businesses, and a groom's 

 is one of them, in which it is difficult to get skilful workmen. 

 There are loiterers of all kinds in the world ; and every large 

 town furnishes thousands of men who have arrived at old age 

 in the pursuit or practice of a business which they never made 

 a serious effort to learn. There are few who have studied to 

 learn or to improve. Everything is left to chance ; and if 

 much were not acquired by chance, a good workman, among 

 working men, would be a wonder. Even among professional 

 men, there is more anxiety to appear skilful than diligence to 

 be so. 



STABLEMEN. 



THERE are several kinds of stable servants. There are 

 coachmen grooms, hunting- giooms, training-grooms, head- 



