Buying a Hunter 73 



The dealer is having a bit of fun. His visitors intended 

 to be smart, and he has to match them. 



" Should not advise any one to buy that horse .? Why 

 not ?" they ask. And he whispers in his customer's ear of 

 this or that trifling fault or defect, until finally he brings 

 his customer round to saying what he ought to have said 

 in the first place : 



" What do you ask for the bay ? " 



** Which bay do you refer to ? " asks the dealer, still de- 

 termined to bring his customer to business. He has dealt 

 with all sorts of horses and colts, — green ones, mild ones, 

 crafty ones, and vicious, — and has never failed to outgen- 

 eral and bring them to his own way of thinking without 

 their suspecting how. He is working the customer in the 

 same fashion. 



" The bay in the box.*' 



" Oh ! " 



Then the dealer turns squarely to the buyer and says : 

 " See here ; do you want to buy ? " 



" Well, that depends upon the price." 



" We shall not disagree about that." The truth is, he 

 does not know what to ask, since the groom, up to this 

 time, has not had a chance to tell the dealer how much he 

 wants for himself. " Better see him out first," he adds. 

 " I should like you to mount him." 



The horse is taken out and tried, the groom meanwhile 

 making his wants known. " What do you want for that 

 horse?" he asks, sotto voce. *' I want four hundred and 

 twenty-five dollars net," is the reply. " Ask five hundred 

 and come down to four seventy-five ; see ? " 



