io6 Our Noblest Friend, The Horse 



is satisfactorily adjusted. Presumably the latter 

 detail is inconsecjuent, but there still remains the 

 former, and many a man has paused right there, and, 

 hesitating, failed of further progress. There are 

 always ready to proffer advice the critical friends 

 " who know all about horses " ; the experienced 

 avuncular relative who has bought and sold every 

 kind of steed from the saw-horse to the war-horse; 

 cautions galore await the adventurer on every hand, 

 but he will, if he is wise, disregard all of them, and, 

 realising that he must tempt fortune in his own way, 

 prepare to run the same risk that he would in buying 

 any other commodity — as a watch or a picture — 

 to suit himself. The purchase of a timepiece, how- 

 ever, has the advantage that you can look inside the 

 case, while the picture can always be revarnished, 

 and there is some special light in which it will always 

 appear to good advantage. One can never plunge 

 until he dives; and the way to learn to swim is to 

 go into the water — and a little over your head at 

 that — therefore, be not perturbed unduly at the 

 unexplored depths of the horse market. 



