VI INTRODUCTION. 



to attend to the head of a quiet horse, while he was 

 undergoing the operation of being scraped and rubbed 

 after his sweat. 



There being, as I have already observed, a breeding 

 establishment here, other duties besides those of the 

 race-horse stables were required ; and these were dis- 

 charged between the stable hours — such as carrying 

 hay and corn to the different paddocks, filling the 

 water troughs, cutting carrots for the mares and foals, 

 leading out some yearlings, and breaking and forward- 

 ing others for their trials. In this way, by order of 

 the groom, were the boys daily employed ; and I, of 

 course, had my share of such parts of this drudgery to 

 which I was equal. 



Progressively advancing from one thing to the other, 

 until the approach of spring, I became of rather more 

 importance, being then ordered by the groom (who 

 was master of the boys) to look after a race-horse, and 

 ride him in his exercise — two things which, for a boy 

 to be well acquainted with, so as to put the groom's 

 orders into practice (particularly the riding), are no 

 very easy tasks. From the directions, however, which 

 were given to me by the head lad, and from the 

 observations I* had made on the manner in v/hich 

 other boys performed their parts, I in a short time be- 

 came acquainted with the whole of my duties as a 

 stable boy ; and with the rest of this young tribe, I 

 was soon initiated in all the little, low, mischievous 

 tricks and gambling amusements, to which boys in 

 racing stables were, in my time, so mucli addicted. 



