HOBSE PORTRAITURE. 



CHAPTEE I. 



INTRODUCTORY ARRIYAL OF THE "TRIAL STABLE." 



PUPIL. Good morning, my esteemed Tutor. You per- 

 ceive I have taken you at your word, and have come with, 

 my whole family, bideps and quadrupeds, to avail myself 

 of your kind teachings. Nature smiles on the commence- 

 ment ; I never remember a morning when everything 

 looked more gay and cheerful. A choir of birds in every 

 tree, making melody such as you cannot hear where gas 

 pollutes the air, and the caller air exhilarating like cham- 

 pagne, the very poetry of breathing. Look at that black 

 thoroughbred, the one with no ear pieces to his hood. He 

 is telling you, as plainly as though he was gifted with 

 speech, that he enjoys it, and wants you to know it. He 

 is a physiognomist, and the first glance at you told him 

 that you knew the next most difficult thing to a woman, 

 a horse, as old Sam Weller says. Look at the beaming 

 of the hazel eye, the expression of the long, slim ears it 

 would be a sin to cover them with ear pieces the exten- 

 ded muzzle and expanded nostril inhaling the aerial treat, 

 while his eye enjoys the beauty of the scenery. But I do 

 not want to tire you at the outset ; so come to the stable, 

 where I will introduce to you the pupils of your pupil, 



