94 THE POCKET AND THE STUD. 



absolutely inadmissible. A wooden peg or two 

 to hang a bridle on while the horse is being saddled 

 is a convenience, and not objectionable, if never 

 used for any other purpose. 



Numerous accidents happen where utensils are 

 allowed to stand in the stable. Horses coming 

 in and out are almost sure to strike against them. 

 This frightens them: they run back, hit some- 

 thing else, or run against other horses and get 

 kicked. Should such a thing occur as a horse 

 getting loose in the night (no very improbable 

 circumstance, by-the-by, in a badly-conducted 

 stable), probably if he walked quietly about, or 

 even into another horse's stall, if used to each 

 other, no harm might happen ; but if in the dark 

 he gets kicking the buckets about the stable, as 

 Dr. Pangloss did the phials about his shop, he 

 (not Dr. Pangloss) gets frightened, frightens the 

 other horses, and they all get kicking and snort- 

 ing together ; and then, to use the doctor's pet 

 numbers, it is " two thousand five hundred and 

 thirty-eight " to one that some mischief ensues. 



Having now got a tolerably comfortable stable, 

 that is, one not a bit too good for a hack, and 

 quite good enough for a hunter, I come to cer- 

 tain little adjuncts to it, convenient if only des- 

 tined for the first-named humble inhabitant, but 

 absolutely indispensable to the more aristocratic 

 tenant. The first of these are (in the stable) 



