90 HORSE PORTRAITURE. 



tivities partake of a religions character; but now Venus 

 and Flora are the presiding deities, when young hearts 

 pay their orisons at the shrine of the first and seek the 

 aid of the latter to be more refined and tasteful in the 

 display of their devotions. To continue your quotation 

 from " Glorious John :" 



" The sprightly May commands our youth to keep 

 The vigils of their night, and breaks their sleep : 

 Each gentle breast with kindly warmth she moves 

 Inspires new flames, revives extinguished loves." 



One great advantage we possess in our climate is, that 

 there is no time of the year that a reasonable man can 

 well find fault with. Foggy November is one of the most 

 enjoyable months in the year at least in the West, and, 

 in fact, the biting cold of the winter is only for a few days 

 at a time ; in the intervening portions, the air gives a zest 

 to the sleigh-ride, mantling the cheek of beauty with roses 

 that outdo those of the growth of this genial month. 



We have followed your directions, and the horses are 

 now ready to start for . the blacksmith shop. If it is a 

 distance that will be inconvenient to walk, we will harness 

 Falcon to the road wagon. 



PEECEPTOK. It is only a short mile from here, and the 

 walk will do us as much good as the horses. The walk will 

 also enable me to give you my ideas in regard to that exer- 

 cise. When in my boyhood's days I was with the stable of 

 race horses, all the exercises were more protracted than at 

 present, more especially the walk. One trainer I was ac- 

 quainted with hardly gave his horses time to eat or sleep, 

 but kept up a continual round of exercise from early in 

 the morning till sundown. I have frequently seen his 

 horses in such a state of exhaustion from this continuous 

 labor, that they could not run a mile in 2 :05. He was 

 quite successful, however, notwithstanding this bad treat- 

 ment. A week or ten days before they had to run in a 



