CHAPTEE XVI. 



THE COLTS MANNER OF PROGRESSING SWEATING PHYSIC 

 REDUCING WITHOUT MEDICINE. 



PUPIL. As you are too full of the lines of grace and 

 beauty to look with equanimity on a sulky, I will have the 

 colts hitched to the wagon, frankly admitting that I want 

 them tofstrike you as favorably as their merits will justify. 

 Oriole, being a year the oldest, will have the precedence, 

 and I will drive her first. 



PRECEPTOR. You may not think much of my powers of 

 discrimination, because I do not qualify the praise of your 

 horses with some invidious remark ; but I must acknow- 

 ledge that I never saw colts that pleased me so well. 

 How general is the desire to be considered a good judge 

 of a horse ! I have often been much amused at the efforts 

 of people to appear learned in the scale of points. Many 

 will think that the only way of impressing a general belief 

 in the soundness of their judgment is to pick the animal 

 to pieces, and while learnedly discoursing, will often praise 

 the parts that are very faulty, while they condemn the 

 only good points in the animal. 



I must say that the fancifully marked filly is one of first- 

 rate promise, and after the closest scrutiny I cannot see 

 where she could well be bettered. It is quite true that 

 she is far from being a trotter yet, and may never be 

 classed as such, no matter how much care we use in her 

 education. Her fine size, united to good form and even- 

 ness of temper, is a great thing at the outset, while her 



