ABOUT BUYING A HORSE. 7 



twelve stone. I don't commit myself to this statement ; I 

 only think it. Ait fo7td, I have a sort of idea that I was 

 twelve stone something, which something was so much that 

 it just grazed thirteen stone. This portion of the history I 

 do not tell. 



Gloppin is incredulous. "Ah," he exclaims, nodding his 

 head in confirmation of his own bigoted opinion, " if you 

 don't ride all fifteen, I don't know what riding fifteen is." 



Happy Tkoi/ght. — Drop the subject, or rather this part of 

 it. That is, drop 7;tc, and take up the horse. Set down one, 

 and carry one. 



" Do you know of anything to suit me, eh ? " I ask him. 



" Ah ! " he replies ; " it's a precious difficult thing to get. 

 1 don't know," he says, turning to my Aunt, " if there's a 

 more difficult thing to lay your hand on just at this 

 moment than what he " (with a nod at me) " wants." 



" Indeed ! " says my Aunt. 



We are all interested. T\Iyself especially. Evidently I 

 want a very superior style of animal, and I draw myself up 

 and listen with an air of some consequence. 



" Yes," says Gloppin, " any dealer, or any one who knows 

 anything about horses, will tell you " — this puts us all out of 

 the question, as we haven't told him — " that the most 

 difficult thing to get just now is what he wants, that's what 

 they call a thorough old gentleman's Cob." 



No, hang it! no. I protest against this description. If 

 he had said a prancing Arab, or cream-coloured Persian 

 steed, or something showy, or even a " covert hack " (which 



