160 My Little Farm 



horse, without returning the price, and the clever 

 man was free to sell him again, which he did in due 

 course, at a farther great profit, again on the same 

 honest terms as before, without warranty " as he 

 stood," and not as he worked. I cannot now 

 remember exactly how many times in two years 

 he sold him in this way, got him back, and kept the 

 money, as he was entitled to do by the law of the 

 land and the approved morality of horse dealing ; 

 but I can remember meeting him one day, and 

 saying to him : " Dominick, how's the horse ? In 

 so far as I can see, you have the best paying horse 

 with any farmer within three thousand square 

 miles of us." A great, silent smile widened over 

 his face, and from that day forward he looked on 

 me as a man of sense. In serious fact, Dominick's 

 " management " of the horse was the most frank 

 and honest that I have seen in the sale of defective 

 horses in Connaught, and as I have said, about 

 90 per cent, of them are seriously defective. I 

 have known many such horses since then 

 " managed " in a like manner, but not one with 

 more intelligence and honesty than in Dominick's 

 case. Yet this method of management, like all 

 others, has its own limits, and Dominick's horse 

 had his interesting career cut short in the end, by 

 having made himself too well known to buyers, 

 after which, he was kindly shot, and a bottle of 

 bad whiskey was merrily drunk to celebrate his 

 burial. 



