THE DAILY LIFE OF OUR FARM. 85 



iug their use greatly exceeds any advantage their speed 

 may give. To suit the ordinary labourer, you must 

 have the regular plough-horse as fast walking as you 

 can obtain, but there must be no galloping or impulse 

 to start off in him. The fellows who can manage 

 spirited horses at agricultural operations are usually 

 of a sort that should not be on a farm at all, if they 

 had given their skill, head, and ability a fair chance. 

 Should you find them after a team, sadly be it stated, 

 there is too often reason to suspect a penchant for 

 public-house entertainment, a course of which some 

 day or other mischief will inevitably come. One good 

 smash of cart and frightened horse takes the gilding 

 off a long slice of farm work. A big or broken knee, a 

 disabled vehicle, and shivered gate (if not worse), nay, 

 even the anticipation of such misadventure, yields too 

 many a pang of discomfort for the wise to adopt the use 

 of such a team. But then, no one is wise at all hours, 

 the Latin grammar teaches ; and in regard to this 

 grand mare, one feels an unwise wavering of purpose. 



" What do you advise ? " asked a young officer the 

 other day (an old friend and pupil) : " I am thinking 

 of getting married." " Dorit by any means ; think of 

 the horrors of a wedded life in a marching regiment, 

 seeing that you are not a man of fortune." " Oh ! but 

 she's such a nice young girl," he replied, with evident 

 disappointment at my counsel. " Yery well, then ; do." 

 And I sent him away delighted ; and to say truth, 

 I don't think he did so badly after all. But we are off 

 the rails. Is it do or don't, as regards this favourite 

 huntress ? Time alone can show. 



Alack-a-day ! the morning hath returned, and with 

 it a new unrelenting fall of snow. There is nothing 



