14 HOW TO EDUCATE HORSES. 



demand. He devoted his whole energies to his busi- 

 ness, taking better care of his animals than of him- 

 self. While here, by his determination and example 

 he prevented the town from being swept away by the 

 floods. Taking hold at a time when all his neighbors 

 expected everything would be ruined, he filled up the 

 already large breach with boulders and sacks. This 

 example infused new life and vigor into the dazed 

 citizens, who, seeing they had a live Yankee for a 

 leader, took hold with a will, so that there were at 

 work at this critical time not less than five hundred 

 men with almost as many animals. Bidding defiance 

 to the raging flood, they succeeded, by almost super- 

 human efforts, in counteracting the threatened destruc- 

 tion. 



Finding his days for hard work over, my father was 

 obliged once more, in 187 1, to return to the East, where 

 he went into the sewing-machine business, selling oft- 

 en in one day, without leaving the hotel parlor, ten 

 machines at a profit of at least seven dollars each. 

 This business he followed successfully in New Hamp- 

 shire, Vermont, and Maine. He afterwards carried on 

 a large meat and live-stock business in West Town- 

 send, Vt., two or three times a year driving large lots 

 of cattle to Connecticut, in company with Mr. Sprague 

 of Weston, He died in 1884, his health having been 

 failing for two or more years. His connection with my 

 travels in the horse-training business will be narrated 

 further along in this autobiography. 



MY BIRTH AND EARLY LIFE. 



On the 14th of July, 1856, at Petersham, Mass., a 

 commotion was caused in that quiet, pleasant country 

 village by the arrival of a no less important individual 

 than myself. Although no hangers, show-bills, or 



