2 70 In Scarlet and Silk 



A friend of mine, an amateur farmer, always 

 buys from four to six young Irish horses, 

 mostly four- year -olds, each autumn, gets 

 them fit to go, and then it depends on them- 

 selves whether one sees them sailing along 

 in the wake of the hounds, or officiating in 

 a plough team. Perhaps, after a summer's 

 work on the farm, they are given a second 

 trial over a country ; if again unsuccessful, 

 they either go back to the calm and retire- 

 ment of agricultural pursuits, or up to the 

 hammer. As my friend is never in a hurry to 

 sell, always having work of some kind or other 

 for horses to do, he rarely loses much money 

 over his " bad bargains." It is the unfortunate 

 who only has three or four stalls who suffers 

 most when he has bought a " wrong un." He 

 must have, say, three hunters ; he has, there- 

 fore, no room for a bad horse, and must sell 

 at once, which means, ninety-nine times out 

 of a hundred, a material loss ; therefore, it 

 becomes with him a matter of real importance 

 as to whether he has acquired a performer or 

 a fraud. 



