386 A COOLER FOR SUNNY. 



was his recommendation ; I would not pay for him, 

 would not lose by him, and, what was more, would 

 neither pay for keep till he was sold nor commission 

 on his sale." Sunny only laughed; accommodated 

 an officer with him who was going abroad, and posi- 

 tively offered me a profit on the price I was to have 

 given for him, Avhich, of course, I refused to take. 

 He never played me a trick afterwards. I could not 

 be angry with the devil, even had I lost by the trans- 

 action: but I did as I have recommended others to 

 do by Nick — I brought him on his haunches at once, 

 and always kept the kicking- strap on : but he never 

 attempted even a lift afterwards with me. 



There is another department in similar establish- 

 ments that is productive in various icays of a much 

 greater source of profit where a large business is done 

 than people may imagine. In such a one as that I 

 have alluded to, the legitimate profits of these were not 

 less than from six to seven hundred a-year ; and where 

 five shillings is charged for putting in harness, and 

 breaks are out, perhaps, ten times a-day, the profits 

 may be easily conceived. I mean, by what I desig- 

 nate legitimate profits, the fairly trying and breaking 

 horses to harness : what the illegitimate profits may 

 be it is impossible to calculate, as they depend on cir- 

 cumstances. By illegitimate profits, I mean trying 

 horses in harness without the knowledge of the owner ; 

 the contriving to make a horse go quietly at one time 

 that is a devil incarnate at others; and, vice versd, 

 making a horse disposed to draw quietly appear and 

 in fact be the very reverse — all of which little funny 

 tricks are to be managed, and are managed, as may 

 suit different occasions. In short, there is no branch 

 of the business of a repository in which in some places 

 a little chiselling is not made use of. 



