164 THE POCKET AND THE STUD. 



sides keeping him twice as long under treatment 

 as he would be kept by such a man as Mr. Field 

 or any other first-rate practitioner, and end by 

 sending in a bill three times as long for doing so. 

 Next in point of annoyance to a groom or 

 coachman sending for a friend in the shape of a 

 farrier to see and of course attend a sick or lame 

 horse, is the groom taking him in hand himself; 

 I mean in this case, of course, an ordinary groom. 

 It is true by his doing so, no farrier's bill is incurred; 

 but in nine cases in ten, the horse comes off even 

 worse than in the hands of a village practitioner, 

 for he has most probably had experience in cases 

 similar to the one he may be called in to see, and 

 after having done a great deal of mischief to a 

 few score of horses in such predicament, and done 

 no good to a few score more, he may possibly, if 

 an old man, have at last hit on some nostrum or 

 practice that has done good, and in such a case 

 his subsequent patients derive benefit from his 

 having at last blundered on the right plan ; but an 

 ordinary groom has not even the advantage of 

 having had these few scores of fortunate animals 

 to practise on, and probably can only say in defence 

 of what he may do or contemplate doing, that, 

 i( when he lived with Mister or Captain such an 

 one, he had a horse taken just the same way ; he 

 knows what Mr. Field did to him, for he saw it 

 all." Now, in the first place, a man may safely bet 



