FOR MOTHERS AND CHILDREN. 



23 



promised to me again, that the last of his days may be 

 spent in quiet happy idleness, and that the hands that 

 trained him may lay him to his rest. 



I have spoken thus of " Pleader," not altogether because I 

 love him so dearly, as to encourage my young readers 

 to make much of the animals that carry them, and to 

 establish a bond of mutual sympatJiyy which is as beautiful 

 as it is good. The greatest horsewoman in the world, Her 

 Imperial Majesty the Empress of Austria, frequently feeds 

 her horses with bread or biscuit while seated upon their 

 backs. She is one of the rare few who seem to grasp the 

 meaning of that peculiar " sympathy " of which I have 

 spoken, and which is indeed so very difficult to understand. 



" There are mysteries deep that we cannot unravel, 



And bonds of affinity ever unguess'd, 

 While the Road to Research is a hard one to travel, 



And many's the queiy, and weary the quest. 

 There are circuits of Thought, growing fainter and wider, 



Like circles in water when pebbles are thrown, 

 A7id the links that exist Hwixt the horse and his rider ^ 



Our shallow philosophy never has known." 



"THE PONY MIGHT FALL AS WELL AS THE BOY." 



