" THE MANAGER AT HOME." 317 



supposing he does not want your horse, and can only 

 sell you his, depend upon it his time will not have 

 been lost. He knows you will buy his ; so the first 

 thing is to get your horse in his way or out of his way 

 as may best suit him. — {Mem. this is another little 

 naturel way he has ! ) — Now to do this, our lately 

 neglected Rascal is employed : he calls at your stables, 



"has heard from (any one but the person he did hear 



it from) that you have a horse to sell." Now the way 



he will work will depend upon the hints he has got of 



your habits, temper, and knowledge of horses: he 



either " does not care about price, will give anything 



for a nice 'un ;" and then points out fifty things that 



make yours a very nasty one ; or he comes the candid 



and civil : " does not mislike the horse ; is but a poor 



man ; if he can make two or three pounds by him he 



is satisfied ;" and so forth: or, " he wants him for a 



Gemman what won't buy no horse without him seeing 



him : will bring the Gemman." He does so : " the 



Gemman don't like the horse at all:'^ he persuades 



him strongly to buy him. We will say the Gemman 



does not buy the horse. "Well," says the owner to 



himself, " the poor- man did all he could to sell the 



horse at any rate :" so Rascal gets something for his 



trouble. The horse has been tolerably abused by this 



time, at least so far as Gemman dare abuse him, and 



the owner is left to digest this at his leisure. This is 



only paving the way for another gemman that Rascal 



brings ; and it rarely happens but the horse is got, 



and either goes to the dealer's stables who wanted 



him, or is sold somewhere else. Thus, in point of 



fact, the swap will be made, not indeed exactly as 



the gentleman meant, but very nearly on the same and 



