Family Horse and Children's Pony 153 



in some directions. If spirited enough for papa, he 

 is too bold for mother and the children to drive ; if 

 (juiet enoug'h for them, he is usually of slow and 

 phlegmatic nature, and the man of the house scorn- 

 fully repudiates him. He is hardly likely to be a 

 trotter one day, a slave the next, an enduring road- 

 ster the third, and a satisfactory saddle-conveyance 

 on the fourth, and to fill in his spare time by plough- 

 ing the garden, hauling manure, and bringing home 

 the wash. There are such horses, — and all honour, 

 a happy life, and a decent burial to them, — but 

 they are not usually for sale, unless the owner is 

 insane or bankrupt ; and where one such is encoun- 

 tered, a thousand are met that are in no way depend- 

 able or satisfactory. 



A woman is rarely fitted to be trusted alone with 

 a horse — this means the abstract, not the individual, 

 female — because she is generally ignorant of the 

 vagaries of any horse but old Billy " that father 

 kept for twenty years," and which was as regular 

 in all respects as the kitchen clock. Every new 

 bit of horse-cloth must be cut according to Billy's 



