Family Horse and Children's Pony 157 



in abundance where safety has endured for years, 

 but these d(j not alter the main facts, nor the gen- 

 eral truth of these statements. A man would never 

 dream of sending out his family alone in a row- or 

 sail-boat, yet he criminally entrusts them all to the 

 vagaries of a dumb beast; and, when the worst 

 comes, excuses himself for what may have been 

 virtually classed as manslaughter, by saying that he 

 '■ does not know much about horses anyway." 



The family horse must always have reached years 

 of discretion before he can, by any possibility, be 

 entitled to safely bear the appellation. No animal 

 of five or six years old can possibly have passed 

 creditably through the varied experiences which such 

 an avocation demands ; for the family steed must be 

 as nearly a stoic under every possible circumstance 

 as though he were but a graven image. The strange 

 objects, the disconcerting incidents usual along and 

 amid ordinary traffic should be to him matters of 

 utter indifference, and the steam from a buzzing, 

 thumping automobile as enjoyable as the bang and 

 crash of an explosion, or the roar and rattle of a 



