128 THE POCKET AND THE STUD. 



less, from this allowance of oats in the stable, there 

 is a little te shouldering," as there is from the 

 coach on the road : but where we cannot always 

 be present, and must trust to subordinates, the 

 only way is to make a fair, liberal, but not profuse 

 allowance; and if things on that allowance are 

 done well, it is bad policy to notice any little 

 advantage those subordinates may derive on par- 

 ticular occasions. For instance, a coach-owner 

 whom I knew employed a horsekeeper on a par- 

 ticularly fast stage in coaching language, " both 

 sides of the road " that is, both going and coming. 

 The man's horses did well and looked well ; but 

 he, like many horsekeepers, was partial to poultry, 

 liked fresh eggs to eat, and his wife liked them to 

 sell in short, he had a very pretty little com- 

 munity of the feathered tribe. His employer, 

 with that shortsightedness that characterises many 

 persons, desired the man to sell off his stock 

 partridge-breasted game, poles, and dorkings. 

 Going up the road some time afterward, he found 

 this had not been done : he dismissed the man on 

 the spot. His successor did not allow a feather 

 to flutter on the premises, but he had his "pen- 

 chant;" he liked something more substantial: he 

 owned a pig, that he located at the next cottage, 

 and by Christmas had him a good fifteen score ; 

 and it was quite remarkable that the horses got 

 thin in precisely the same ratio the grunter got 



