AGRICULTURE AND THE HORSE. 357 



they did not know exactly what to say. It was a 

 new view of the horse question. And they were some- 

 what stunned by the thought that they ought to return 

 to the days when sheep and oxen and asses occupied 

 the largest attention; when the merits of cows went 

 unrecorded, the bull was generally ignored, swine were 

 forbidden, and the horse was consigned to a vain and 

 wicked world for the gratification of vanity and wick- 

 edness alone. It is doubtful whether any reply would 

 have been made to Mr. Jones, except a mild expos- 

 tulation from the Chaii', and a murmur in one corner 

 of the room about "a white mare," and "my little girl's 

 pony," which had a very warm and tender tone in it, 

 had not Mr. John Osgood been present, and felt moved 

 to take up the matter where Mr. Jones laid it down. 



Mr. Osgood was a fine specimen of a New-England 

 farmer. His ancestors had been landholders for gene- 

 rations back. They were men of influence too. One 

 of them was the first postmaster-general under Wash- 

 ington ; another had held high position in one of the 

 oldest and strongest towns in Massachusetts; another 

 had filled to overflowing one of the most powerful of 

 the old New-England pulpits ; another was the trusted 

 friend of the first great chief justice of Massachusetts ; 

 and another was a great farmer, owned broad lands, 

 and was famous for his flocks and herds and crops, 

 as well as for his stables. Mr. Osgood himself, it was 

 said, started from the smallest possible beginning. His 

 only patrimony was the inheritance of blood to which 



