A RUNAAVAY. 131 



away nineteen times in twenty is occasioned by 

 fright or emulation in the horse, by carelessness 

 or knowing nothing of what he is about in the 

 driver. If a person asked my advice as to buy- 

 ing a horse that had run away in harness, my 

 first thought would be to learn what sort of a 

 workman (be he owner or servant) the indivi- 

 dual might be who would have the driving of 

 the horse. If that person was in technical term a 

 coachman, the probability is my advice would be, 

 if you like the horse, buy him. If, on the con- 

 trary, the driver elect, whether master or man, 

 w^as found to be one of those helpless specimens 

 of coachmanship we daily see in the person of 

 both of these, I should at once say, if you mean to 

 drive those out with you for whom you have any 

 value, or have any regard for your own bones, 

 have nothing to do with him. There are plenty 

 of men to whom he would be valuable, but with 

 you or your man he will go off again to a cer- 

 tainty. Before, therefore, you enter into minute 

 inquiries about the habit of the horse, be minute 

 in the investigation of your own coachmanship. 



To convince either master or man that they 

 were such apologies for coachmen, might not be 

 easy ; but having given the advice, I should have 

 acquitted my conscience. The one or the other 

 would, most probably, both buy and drive the 

 horse. If they should do this, and he did not 



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