ic8 OCCASIONAL HAPPY THOUGHTS. 



As the Equestrian Visitor appears to know something 

 about the matter, and as Jarvis has at once seen (I catch 

 his eye) the importance of enlisting such respectable and 

 unprejudiced evidence on his own side, I feel bound to ask 

 the last speaker, " What he means by that observation ? " 



"Well," he replies, "it's a good serviceable beast. It's 

 what I should call a good slave for the country." 



Oho ! Then we're not horse-dealing, we're slave-dealing. 



I reply, "Ah, I see what you mean," and I think I shall, 

 presently. 



Mr. Jarvis seizes the opportunity. 



"Ah, he's all that, and more. He'll do his thirteen mile 

 an hour easy, in a level country. I've taken him to Scrag- 

 ford, round by Hillfield, and back, in a day, with a wag- 

 gonette full." 



He takes for granted that we know the country. The 

 Tall Equestrian does, or pretends to, and says, " stiff work." 



" Nothing to him," returns Jarvis, jauntily, as if he had 

 dragged the waggonette full himself. (The Horse looks 

 sleepily on, all the time, but, like the prisoner at an English 

 Criminal trial, "his mouth is closed," and I pity him.) 

 " Nothing ! He faces his hills from first to last as though 

 they were mole-heaps " 



" P'raps," I interrupt, sharply, with a side-glance at my 

 Aunt and the Ladies, " he'd stumble over mole-heaps." 



My Aunt and the Ladies don't enjoy my httle fun, just 

 thrown in as it were to lighten the entertainment. They 

 are gradually coming to admire the horse ! They began by 

 pitying him, because of his woebegone appearance ; then 



