228 The Post and the Paddock. 



seldom more than two, and they frequently find them 

 a temporary stable-mate at the great Lincoln Fair 

 each April. The latter are expected to produce a 

 profit of 28 to 25 per cent, for their three months' 

 strong keep up to Horncastle, or else they hardly 

 realize their new owners' sole idea of " paying for 

 August." Dealers' payments, we may add, are obliged 

 to be prompt and good, as the farmers are not " dis- 

 count-men," although the reported prices at great fairs 

 must be read with considerable mental discount. 

 Sellers invariably state the prices they ask, not what 

 they get ; and we remember an instance where the 

 actual price for three which were bought by a hunting- 

 man, in one lot, was 38o/. below what appeared in the 

 newspaper report of the fair ! The most successful 

 private sellers of horses we know, are that sly, half 

 horse-dealing, half farmer race, who stick their hats 

 into the nape of their necks, and talk, quite simply 

 and softly, close into your face ; men, in short, who 

 are wonderfully clever fellows, but who deceive you by 

 looking like utter fools. Their great dodge is to crab 

 the good points of the horse they want to sell : 

 " Varra fine horse, but don't you think he's not varra 

 good about the sh001ders ?" was the comment we 

 heard one of them make, as he asked a rattling price 

 (on the ground that he " didn't care to part with him 

 for a bit") for an animal whose shoulders were fault- 

 less. Away went the intended purchaser to a friend, 

 who knew the horse's points better than he did the 

 owner's, and was told to buy him directly, as " the fool 

 doesn't know what a good horse he has ;" and " the 

 fool" grinned in his sleeve accordingly. Perhaps a 

 northern breeder of hunters, some twenty years since, 

 got rid of three in the neatest way to a nobleman, who 

 did not care so very much for two of them, but he had 

 set his whole heart on the third. " I always said I 

 would not sell that horse," were the words in which 

 the bargain was clenched, " and I must keep my word ; 



