PUTTING IN A COOLER. 359 



he of saying an unpleasant thing, and so feelingly alive 

 is he to the interest of his employer), that he says to 

 his man, " Go down again, Jem ; give him his head ; 

 go five miles an hour ; that'll do ; stand." He now 

 looks at one foot, then turns to the owner : " I beg 

 pardon for not answering before. Sir ; has this horse 

 ever been a little tender on this foot ?" — " No, never, 

 Mr. Nickem ; there cannot be a sounder horse." — 

 " Oh, I'm sure of that, Sir, from what you say ; but 

 I can't fancy he goes quite level noAV." This is feeler 

 the second, and gets a hint how the seller will take 

 anything of this kind : but it does more than this ; it 

 just leaves Nickem in a situation to be able hereafter 

 with a good grace to confess his mistake, or to prove 

 the correctness of his eye and judgment : in fact to 

 make the horse a sound or unsound one as he pleases. 

 Not wishing at present to alarm the owner sufficiently 

 to cause him to fear his horse is not in a state for sale, 

 he now says — " I see that shoe presses a little hard 

 on the heel ; I have no doubt but that is all that is the 

 matter. I will get his feet nicely put to rights : they 

 will look all the better for sale, and I have no doubt 

 the horse will be all right immediately. I will see it 

 done myself." — ^^ (Mem. no doubt of that!) — Then 

 addressing his man, "Put a poultice on that horse's off 

 foot, and I will get his shoes altered first thing in the 

 morning : go in. — No occasion. Sir, to make every- 

 body as wise as ourselves : we'll set him to rights, 

 never fear ! " Some people might think that if a shoe 

 really pinched, the sooner it was off the better, and 

 would have it off immediately. I should, and so 

 would Nickem in such a case : but then the owner 

 might be inclined to see his horse's foot pared out 

 himself. This would not be so convenient ; though 



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