THE DAILY LIFE OF OUR FARM. 253 



ing road — for he proved to have come of a celebrated 

 trotting Anglesea breed— delighted with his sloping 

 shoulder, flat foreleg, and compact build, I had bought 

 him for but two-thirds of what an English breeder 

 would have asked me for an indifferent gelding. He 

 proved to be the pet sire of the neighbourhood, and the 

 pedestal of the cottager's fortunes, while, as luck would 

 have it, I fell in with him just as his owner, who farmed 

 some twenty acres, being overstocked, was at his wits' 

 end for provender, not caring to buy, and having con- 

 sumed all his home-growth. My friend was much 

 amused by what he called my precipitation in buying, 

 and said that he had for the last three months been 

 engaged in the purchase of a carriage horse, which he 

 had o^ot all his friends to examine for him in turn. 

 No wonder that he was long in making up his mind. 

 There must needs be heresies under such terms. My 

 noble little fellow is but fifteen hands and an inch high, 

 and proves quite a gem, so tractable and so strong, that 

 the only mischief is that my people persist in putting 

 upon him more than his share of draught. Having also 

 fallen in with a couple of deep-barrelled, short-legged, 

 active, dapple-brown Welsh mares, I shall now have the 

 gratification of breeding a colt or two of a taking stamp, 

 at least so I am elated enough to think. 



What a thing to stick that weed the charlock is ! 

 Give it but its toe in the soil, and it will make good its 

 hold as effectually as a stranger limb of the law would 

 do amidst the deeds in your strong box. I had ever 

 so much pulled and hoed out of a crop of swedes 

 upon a piece of ground which we have not yet had 

 time thoroughly to expurgate of its latent seeds. The 

 least fibre, however, attaching to the mould seems 



