130 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 



sons, it ceased to be a hat and became a badge. There 

 was another good feature of this hotel ; the office, a 

 long, low room, had a big open fireplace, where logs 

 of wood burned cheerfully on a frosty night in au- 

 tumn. The hostler, moreover, was an excellent one. 

 True, he fairly reeked of chloroform (New Hampshire 

 is a prohibition State), and his memory was not of the 

 best, being unable to cany "four quarts of oats" 

 more than fifteen minutes, or to distinguish it at the 

 distance of half an hour from a bran mash; but he 

 was gentle with his horses, and groomed them well. 



If the roadster is to be kept in good condition, and 

 to come out fresh every morning, his master must be 

 liberal with fees and vigilant in his oversight. Hos- 

 tlers, — I say it with reluctance, — especially in large 

 stables, are, generally speaking, worthless, drunken 

 creatures ; and here and there a tavern-keeper is found 

 base enough to cheat a horse out of his oats. "But," 

 some self-indulgent reader may exclaim, " one might 

 as well stay at home as to go off on a journey and be 

 bothered with a horse." This would be distinctly the 

 argument of a Yahoo, and if any one is in danger of 

 bein^ deceived bv it I would refer him to what the 

 famous Captain Dugald Dalgetty said upon the sub- 

 ject: "'It is my custom, my friends, to see Gustavus 

 (for so I have called him, after my invincible master) 

 accommodated myself ; we are old friends and fellow 

 travellers, and as I often need the use of his legs, I 

 always lend him in my turn the service of my tongue 

 to call for whatever he has occasion for ; ' and accord- 

 ingh' he strode into the stable after his steed without 

 further apology." 



Horses often fall ill or break down on a journey, and 



