104 HORSE POETBAITURE. 



the colts had the " belly-ache." Which one ? I eagerly 

 enquired. The pretty bay, was his answer. All three were 

 bays, but I knew which he meant. I jumped out of bed, 

 hurried on my clothes, and found my worst fears more 

 than fulfilled. It needed but a glance to arrive at a cor- 

 rect diagnosis, lock-jaw. I led him a few blocks to a ve- 

 terinarian, who frankly told me that he had not one 

 chance in a hundred to live. He applied chloroform till 

 insensibility was induced. This was some relief, as, when 

 lying under its influence, the pain of looking at him suffer- 

 ing so intensely was done away. All the man's skill availed 

 not : he died. 



The conclusion that forced itself on my mind was, that, 

 in the hurry of shoeing by the dim light of a lamp, the 

 nail was driven too near the quick ; that the jarring of 

 the car after journeying over the Macadamized road 

 caused the lameness. The pulling the shoe off did still 

 further injury. The nerve was wounded, resulting in the 

 loss of an animal that would have been of incalculable 

 service to the stock of the section where I lived. Crossed 

 on mares, the get of the Falcon, would have produced 

 trotters to a certainty. His trotting step was as fine as 

 &.ny colt bred expressly for that purpose ever had. His 

 blood, form, and quality, being of so high a character, I 

 despair of ever looking on his like again. 



