154 ^^^ Noblest Friend, The Horse 



coat — and as she lacks in experience, so also is she 

 in proportion deficient in toleration. She revels 

 in her ignorance, and any accident which scatters 

 her and the children along the countryside is invaria- 

 bly the horse's fault, and never her own — woe the 

 " worser "-half who would dare suggest otherwise! 



Again, she has no strength in her wrists or arms; 

 she has never been taught to shut her hands and to 

 hold them closed, even when there was no active 

 resistance from reins, etc. ; she generally wears 

 gloves too small, or so confining to hand and wrist 

 that, if she double up her fist, it must open freely 

 in a moment, from sheer inability to remain closed, 

 through cramping of the muscles. If then she suc- 

 cessfully and quite unharmed navigates the highways 

 and byways for extended periods, it may be con- 

 sidered but another of the many wondrous happen- 

 ings of the age, and more worthy of commemora- 

 tion than many of the deeds engraven upon tablets 

 of brass and monuments of stone. 



As she is usually ignorant of the first laws of 

 equitation, so also is she guileless of any knowledge 



