324 " THE HANDKERCHIEF." 



as it is well known a dying horse will frequently eat 

 up to the last moment. 



It may be said, that a person stationed before the 

 object at which we wish the horse to stop with a whip 

 in his hand would deter him from passing it, or 

 flogging him back might teach him not to do so in 

 future: no doubt it would, and if simply stopping 

 was all we wanted, this summary process would do ; 

 but we want the horse not only to stop, but to eat 

 for a purpose that will shortly appear, and flogging 

 will not make him do that. 



"We want the horse to eat because we want him to 

 pick up the handkerchief; and it is only by his 

 desire to eat that we can efi'ect this. 



He has now learned that where he sees a white 

 cloth there he may expect to And corn. We will 

 now double over the ends of the cloth so as to cover 

 the grain ; but as his not seeing it is not now enough to 

 do away with his expectation of finding it, he ^Y\\\ 

 very soon twist the cloth about so as to get at the 

 corn. We now tie the cloth up so that he cannot get 

 at it : he well knows, both from habit and his sense 

 of smell, that corn is there, and from the common 

 instinct of nature he does just what we want him to 

 do ; he lays hold of the cloth Avith his teeth, and lifts 

 it up. Our business is now more than half done — 

 we have taught or induced him to lift up the hand- 

 kerchief. 



To show that he will do this, we have only to 

 observe a cow : if she gets hold of a hay-band, she 

 knows she cannot swallow the whole ; so, after chew- 

 ing as much as she can swallow, she will be seen to 

 lift it from the ground, and shake it to get rid of the 



