6 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 



appurtenant to the stable. (Not everybody, indeed, 

 is so fortunately situated, but still the conditions just 

 mentioned are by no means uncommon.) Now let us 

 suppose further that you go into the market or to 

 some private person and purchase, as you may easily 

 do for forty or fifty dollars, an old, broken-down 

 horse, of whom a long hard day's work has been, and 

 unless you intervene will for some years yet con- 

 tinue to be extracted. Take him home, and watch 

 the quick transition from misery to happiness. He 

 comes into your stable with stiff, painful steps ; his 

 legs swollen from hock and knee to ankle ; his ribs 

 clearly visible through a rough, staring coat ; and, 

 above all, with that strained, anxious expression of 

 the eye which nobody who has once seen and under- 

 stood it can ever expel from his memory. It is the 

 expression of despair. You take off his shoes, give 

 him a run at grass or a deep bed of straw in a com- 

 fortable loose box, and forthwith the old horse begins 

 to improve. Little by little, the expression of his eye 

 changes, the swelling goes out of his legs, and it will 

 not be long before he cuts a caper; a stiff and un- 

 gainly one, to be sure, but still a caper, indicative of 

 health and happiness. He will neigh at your ap- 

 proach, and gladly submit his head for a caress, 

 whereas at first he would have shrunk in terror from 

 any such advances. (It may be ten years since a 

 hand was laid upon him in kindness.) If you have 

 any work for him to do, the old horse will perform 

 it with alacrity, exerting himself out of gratitude; 

 he will even flourish off in harness with the airs of 

 a colt, as who should say, "There is life in me yet; 

 don't send me to the knacker; behold my strength 



