CART HORSES. 227 



or that the ploughman, wrapped up in a top-coat that 

 might resist the rigors of a Siberian winter, creeps 

 after them, as frigid and benumbed an object as the 

 animals themselves ! " 



He also tells the following incident, vouching for 

 its truth : " A farmer who lived at Longstock, near 

 Stockbridge, many years ago, was one day walking 

 about his farm with a facetious friend. They noticed 

 a plough, with horses and man, in the middle of a field, 

 and the friend suggested that it was standing still. 

 The farmer declared it was moving, and a dispute 

 arose and ran high between them as to which was the 

 case. To settle the question, the} 7 hit upon the ex- 

 pedient of getting a fold-shore, and setting it up in a 

 line with the horses' heads and some conspicuous ob- 

 ject beyond. But the ploughman now observed them, 

 and, suspecting what they were about, became trou- 

 bled in conscience, and whipped up his horses, which 

 then quickened their pace, so that the fact that they 

 were really moving became obvious ; and," says the 

 writer, " we may see examples of the same sluggish- 

 ness every day of our lives." 



In the United States, in the eastern part at least, 

 the farm horse can hardly be called a cart horse, for 

 he is comparatively light in build. It is in the city 

 that we find the cart horse in his noblest form and 

 highest condition, and there he will doubtless con- 

 tinue, until the warehouses crumble to dust and grass 

 grows in the highway. The car horse is fast disap- 

 pearing ; and every lover of dumb animals will re- 

 joice that this should be so, for the electric current 

 that invisibly takes his place has no capacity for 

 suffering. 



