ABOUT BUYING A HORSE. 137 



unaccustomed to harness. Trott, with v/hom Gloppin 

 agrees on every point, as if he were his (Trott's) partner, 

 not my friend come to advise me^ and pick out the horse's 

 defects — Trott answers, that he doesn't shy — he's only fresh ; 

 that he's not been in harness for some time, and as an 

 answer to my objection that he's young, " If he were only 

 two years older," he adds emphatically, "he'd be worth a 

 hundred and fifty guineas to anyone." 



" He's a cheap horse," says Gloppin. But then Gloppin 

 isn't going to buy him. 



I have another trial of him without Gloppin and my 

 Aunt. I ride him. Very carefully. He seems to be light 

 and airy, with an inclination to bound up suddenly. 



This is, I find subsequently, what Trott calls " spring}'." 



He is springy. Like an animated mattress, only harder. 



He is especially springy when he sees a donkey. He is 

 springy again when he has to pass a brewer's cart. He is 

 most remarkably springy when a barrel suddenly tumbles 

 off the cart as I am passing and rolls away down the hill 

 with a noise like thunder. I don't believe, had anybody 

 else been on the horse, that that barrel would have tumbled 

 off. Why is it these things always happen to me ? {Note 

 on F. Fate. Typical Developments, Vol. XXV., ch. 2.) 



At this his springiness shows itself in bounds, hops, 

 starts, and I think — I only think, for I am not certain as 

 to knowing exactly when I am on his back — a kick. If a 

 kick, it was not much of a kick, but enough. 



Happy Thought, — Walk him gently. It's a great thing 



