1861. 



NEW ENGLAKD FARMER. 



407 



Finally, my trial in Court was finished, and 

 there was to be a pic-nic near Fresh Pond, where 

 all my friends were going. I had bought a new 

 light top buggy, and harness to match, and wife 

 and I drove up. Honesty was in high feather, 

 and made the new carriage spin along like a linen 

 wheel. We passed the afternoon- in the woods, 

 and when our team was brought up for our re- 

 turn, everybody was attracted by our elegant turn 

 out. I confess I felt not a little pleased with 

 this universal appreciation of my taste. I don't 

 know why it is, but everybody considers a com- 

 pliment to his horse as fully equivalent to one to 

 himself. We bade adieu to our admiring friends ; 

 I handed my wife into the carriage, gathered up 

 the ribbons and waved my hand by way of part- 

 ing salutation. Honesty pawed, but did not move 

 forward. I chirruped and shook the reins. Hon- 

 esty shook his head, and gave a significant snort. 

 A friend took him by the bit, when he stepped 

 rapidly backward, till the new buggy brought up 

 against a tree. I touched him with the whip, when 

 he reared and snorted, and my wife screamed. 

 "Don't whip him," cried a friend ; "whipping never 

 does any good to a contrary horse." "He is an 

 old offender, I see by his actions," said another. 



The details of this exhibition are not agreeable 

 to dwell upon. Neither coaxing, nor whipping, 

 nor pushing, nor things present, nor things to 

 come, nor any other creature, could induce that 

 beast to even draw the empty carriage out of its 

 tracks. I asked a friend to take my wife home, 

 and leaving my elegant carriage, ignominiously 

 led the obstinate brute to a stable near by, and 

 left him for the night. 



"A sadder and a wiser man I woke the morrow 

 morn." I persevered with Honesty yet awhile, 

 but after being kept two hours by his stopping in 

 a rainy night on Cambridge bridge, on one occa- 

 sion, and being obliged to leave him in the stable 

 yard, when in great haste to meet an engagement 

 at Lexington, I reluctantly concluded that he was 

 not perfectly kind. My wife had long since de- 

 clined further experiments with him. I was puz- 

 zled whether to admit myself duped and cheated, 

 or attempt to cure the defect. I rode the beast 

 occasionally, and sometimes drove him, with va- 

 rious success. One day I had business at Con- 

 cord, at the County Court, and with a friend drove 

 into that beautiful village just at sunset. Court 

 had just adjourned for the day, and my brother 

 lawyers and clients, and jurors and witnesses 

 were lounging about the hotel and the old elm on 

 the common. Just as we came in front of the 

 Middlesex hotel, I observed my horse suddenly 

 to falter ; then he stopped, throwing up his head, 

 and jerking it sideways in a manner remarkable 

 to see, seemed quite bewildered. "He has a fit :" 

 "jump out or you will get hurt," cried the multi- 

 tude, which at once surrounded us. 



My friend obeyed the call, and I attempted to 

 do so, just as the distracted beast sallied backward 

 over the shaft, "and Mortham, steed and rider 

 fell." Down we came in one miscellaneous heap, 

 the carriage essentially smashed, and his owner 

 vexed and discomfitted. A few days proved that 

 Honesty was subject to frequent attacks of this 

 kind. 



But had I not a warranty, and am I not a law- 

 yer ? Straightway I commenced an action for 

 deceit. It is a proverb at the bar, that a lawyer 



who tries his own case has a fool for his client. 

 I retained and paid counsel. I summoned and 

 paid witnesses ; I consulted and paid Doctor Dadd 

 and other experts. The case was tried, and all 

 Middlesex county was made to understand how 

 a lawyer had been cheated by a jockey. The jury 

 rendered a verdict in my favor for $125 damages, 

 probably upon the idea that a lawyer ought not 

 to recover more than half that he is cheated out 

 of. I gave my execution to an officer, with orders 

 to arrest the rascal, and told my counsel to op- 

 pose him at every step and follow him to the end 

 of the law. 



After a few months, my attorney sent for me, 

 and gave me the result of following my directions. 

 The defendant had been committed to jail where 

 he had quietly remained several weeks, apparent- 

 ly happy in the consciousness that by the benefi- 

 cent provisions of our laws, I, his creditor, was 

 paying $1.75 per week for his board. Then he 

 had given notice of his intention to avail him- 

 self of a further beneficent provision of our stat- 

 utes by taking the poor debtor's oath. My coun- 

 sel had faithfully obeyed instructions and opposed 

 him there, paying for me, according to law, two 

 dollars per day to the Commissioner, while the 

 examination was pending. Finally the vagabond 

 had succeeded in swearing out, and my various 

 bills amounted to about the amount I had first 

 paid, $250. 



The enemy was free, but I was not. I still had 

 that "dreadful horse," worse than Mr. Pickwick's 

 that nobody would take away. A neighboring 

 horse dealer oS'ered me $50, and I sold him and 

 took his note for the amount. A few days after, 

 I asked him what he had done with him. He 

 said he had advertised him to sell at a horse sale 

 in the city. I had a rational curiosity to see the 

 advertisement, and asked him to show it to me, 

 which he did, and it ran as follows : — "Black 

 Saddle Horse. A particularly fine black saddle 

 horse, perfectly sound and kind in all respects 

 and free from tricks." 



I don't know how much he got for his fine 

 saddle horse. I only know that I still hold his 

 worthless note for fifty dollars. — America7i Stock 

 Journal. 



For the New England Farmer. 



CROPS— PKECISE STATEMENT WANTED. 



Will your correspondent, Mr. N. Hitchcock, 

 who has presented in the columns of your paper 

 a statement of his grain crops for the last year, 

 confer a further obligation by informing the read- 

 ers of your paper, the number of days' work, man 

 and beast, performed on the three lots, sixteen 

 acres in all. It strikes me that he has put his 

 figures too low, and not too high, as he feared. 

 His land must be good and be well tilled to pro- 

 duce, after paying interest on its value at §68 per 

 acre, an averaged profit of over thirteen dollars 

 per acre, or about twenty per cent. I notice, also, 

 that he credits his corn crop with one-third of 

 the manure, while he charged in the first instance 

 to cost, and I do not perceive from the inspection 

 of either the oat or rye crop, any charge for the 

 manure carried forward from any crop of the 

 previous year, thus showing that to be his regu- 

 lar practice. These are important points to be 

 observed. No greater benefactor to the agricul- 



