THE horse's rescue. 141 



men thirty or forty years old talk like that,' there is 

 not much hope of their improvement. As though a 

 man could read any book without first caring for it. 

 That is what causes all improvements and progres- 

 sion. 



This man told me, a few days previous to this con- 

 versation, that he had set seventy horse shoes in a day 

 in winter, and the first horse did not get in the shop 

 until ten o'clock, and it was dark at about four 

 o'clock. If he went without his dinner it would give 

 him six hours to do this work. I have no doubt that 

 he did the work ; it is too often done. Notwithstand- 

 ing all this boasting, owners of horses, when you hear 

 a man telling about setting seventy shoes in six hours, 

 if you get in his shop you will be likely to take your 

 horse home with two sets of feet on him, and in a 

 worse condition, or soon to be, tha-n if he had not 

 touched him. 



I must brag a little. lean outbrag them, all; that 

 is what ails them. If they could beat me bragging 

 they would be all on an equal footing; but they can't 

 — I never met a man that could. But no man ever 

 heard me brag about the number of shoes I set in 

 one day, for I knew that the people were not all fools, 

 and that they could and do see something. 



There is no use talking; it will only end in confu- 

 sion. I have no recollection of setting over forty shoes 

 in a day, and that was spun out to twelve hours; but 

 it was fairly done — nothing extra. The pay was 

 small, and I was obliged to do more than I ought, in 

 order to keep the business up. I have spent one 

 whole day — and faithfully to — shoeing one horse that 



