40 THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER. 



said. " That's a pity, sir," replied the butcher ; 

 " you see it is not his fault. But I'll tell you what it 

 is ; you just please to mount, and let me put a tray of 

 meat on the saddle before you, and then I warrant 

 you'll say he goes fast enough !" 



Horses often exhibit a good deal of cunning. The 

 late General Pater, of the East India service, was a 

 remarkably fat man. While stationed at Madras, he 

 purchased a charger, which, after a short trial, all at 

 once betook himself to a trick of lying down when- 

 ever he prepared to get upon his back. Every expe- 

 dient was tried, without success, to cure him of the 

 trick ; and the laugh was so much indulged against 

 the general's corpulency, that he found it convenient 

 to dispose of his horse to a young officer quitting the 

 settlement for a distant station up the country. Up- 

 wards of two years had subsequently elapsed, when, 

 in the execution of his official duties, General Pater 

 left Madras to inspect one of the frontier cantonments. 

 He travelled, as is the usual custom in India, in his 

 palanqueen (a covered couch carried on men's shoul- 

 ders). The morning after his arrival at the station, 

 the troops were drawn out ; and, as he had brought no 

 horses, it was proper to provide for his being suitably 

 mounted, though it was not very easy to find a charger 

 adapted to his weight. At length an officer resigned 

 to him a powerful horse for the occasion, which was 

 brought out duly caparisoned in front of the line. 



