GREAT BARGAINS. 97 



horse-flesh is always suspicious, and the greater the bar- 

 gain the more suspicious he becomes. If in appearance, 

 , show, beauty, style of going and action, the animal offered 

 for sale be very superior, and the price at which he is 

 offered very inferior, one may be perfectly certain that the 

 horse has some very bad secret fault, whether of temper 

 or constitution, of vice or of unsoundness, which time Avill 

 be sure to discover. It is never safe to take it for granted 

 that the seller of a horse is an ass, or is not aware of the 

 worth of his merchandise. If he err, nine times out of 

 ten it will be in overrating, not underrating its value. To 

 get a good horse, ordinarily, one must expect and be con- 

 tent, to pay a good price — the more, the greater the num- 

 ber of excellencies one may desire to obtain. 



These rules premised, it is necessary for the buyer to 

 make up his mind exactly as to what he wants, Avhich, of 

 course, must be in a measure regulated by what he has 

 got to pay. If he merely wants a stout, serviceable, sound, 

 active, useful brute, without caring about speed, action, 

 beauty, or blood, he will be readily and easily accommo- 

 dated for a moderate sum, say from $75 to $125 ; with 

 each of the other additions the figure advances in arith- 

 metical progression, until, if one require a highly-bred, 

 beautiful, fine-stepping, fast, gentle and perfectly broke 

 horse, the price becomes a fancy one, and, according to 

 the degree of each attribute, ascends higher and higher, 

 and may become anything. 



Of course it is not with animals of this kind that we are 

 dealing ; nor is it to this that we require our purchaser to 

 make up his mind — but as to the use for which he requires 

 his horse ; whether for heavy draft, for a carriage-horse, a 

 light harness horse, an agricultural horse, or a saddle-horse, 

 all of which have different points of excellence and dis- 

 tinct qualifications. The heavy draft-horse and agricul- 



