124 HUNTING 



truth in regard to their weight. The age of a groom 

 and whether he be married or single are matters which 

 a man must decide for himself. We recommend him 

 not to engage a married man unless he has a lodge or 

 cottage on, or immediately adjacent to, his property, 

 for day and night the groom should be as near to his 

 horses as possible. 



Allusion has already been made to the stable lad 

 in a three horse establishment. A smart lad from the 

 village school, willing to learn, will serve the purpose, 

 if the groom is willing to teach him. We never knew 

 or heard of a groom who was unwilling to teach a 

 willing pupil. On the contrary, the usual complaint 

 against a good groom is that he is too stern a school- 

 master; but the stable lad may bear this in mind, 

 that the sterner the groom is under whom he serves 

 his apprenticeship, the better groom he himself will be 

 in his after days. We once had a complaint from a 

 lad that he had been kept in the saddle-room cleaning 

 harness till eleven o'clock at night, because he had not 

 cleaned it properly in the first instance. " Was the 

 groom there all the time?" we asked. "Yes, sir." 

 " Then he was taking more trouble in teaching you 

 than you were in cleaning the harness ; you ought to 

 be extremely grateful to him. Go away, and learn to 

 do your work properly." Juvenile nature may not 

 like such stern lessons, we admit, but still juvenile 

 nature is the better for them. Of course a groom 

 should never bully a lad, but a man who is kind 

 to dumb creatures is not likely to be cruel to a human 

 being. 



"Wanted — A Geoom." Such is the advertisment 



