20 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 



years of service, lose their style ; they become a little 

 stiff, a little '-sore forward," it may be; one of them, 

 perhaps, is suffering from incipient spavin ; and on 

 the whole it is thought high time to dispose of them, 

 and get a fresher, younger pair. Accordingly, John, 

 the groom, is directed to take them to an auction 

 stable, and in due course Dives, their old master, re- 

 ceives in return a cheque, — a very small cheque, to be 

 sure, but still large enough to make a respectable con- 

 tribution to foreign missions or to purchase a case of 

 champagne. That is all he knows about the transac- 

 tion, and he does not allow his mind to dwell upon 

 the inevitable results. But let Dives go to the auction 

 stable himself ; let him observe the wistful, homesick 

 air (for horses are often homesick) with which the 

 old favorites look about them when they are backed 

 out of the unaccustomed stalls ; then let him stand 

 by and see them whipped up and down the stable floor 

 to show their tardy paces, and finally knocked down 

 to some hard-faced, thin-lipped dealer. It needs very 

 little imagination to foresee their after career. To 

 begin with, the old companions are separated. — a 

 great grief to both, which it requires a long time to 

 obliterate. The more active one goes into a country 

 livery stable, where he is hacked about by people 

 whose only interest in the beast is to take out of him 

 the pound of flesh for which they have paid. He has 

 no rest on week days, but his Sunday task is the hard- 

 est. On that sacred day, the reprobates of the village 

 who have arrived at the perfect age of cruelty (which 

 I take to be about nineteen or twenty) lash the old 

 carriage horse from one public house to another, and 

 bring him home exhausted and reeking with sweat. 



