134 THE COMPLETE SPORTSMAN 



creature to reason by thrusting a hot roast leg 

 of mutton into its mouth whenever it flew at him 

 with open jaws. It may, however, occasionally 

 happen to the reader to be attacked by a 

 ferocious horse at a moment when — o^\dng 

 perhaps to forgetfulness on his part or to some 

 false notions of domestic economy on the part 

 of his wife — he does not happen to have a roast 

 leg of mutton about him. He may have tem- 

 porarily mislaid it, or have left it behind upon 

 the library table. In such a case I strongly and 

 earnestly advise him to leave the animal alone; 

 in fact, the sooner and the quicker he leaves it 

 alone, the better chance will he stand of escaping 

 serious injury. 



A great friend of mine was looking a gift-horse 

 in the mouth, one afternoon, when the ill- 

 mannered beast — I mean, of course, the horse, 

 not my great friend — resenting this intimate 

 dental scrutiny, tried to bite him in the eye. 

 Not having a leg of mutton to thrust into its 

 jaws, a bottle of soda-water to break over its 

 head, or indeed any other punitive implement 

 in his possession, my friend thought that he 

 would leave the misguided creature alone for 

 a little. In the endeavour to translate thought 

 into action, he succeeded in covering the space 

 separating the stable-yard from the front-door — 

 a distance of nearly seventy- three yards — in less 



