20 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 
years of service, lose their style; they become a little 
stiff, a little “sore forward,” it may be; one of them, 
perhaps, is suffering from incipient spavin; and on 
the whole it is thought high time to dispose of them, 
and get a fresher, younger pair. Accordingly, John, 
the groom, is directed to take them to an auction 
stable, and in due course Dives, their old master, re- 
ceives in return a cheque, —a very small cheque, to be 
sure, but still large enough to make a respectable con- 
tribution to foreign missions or to purchase a case of 
champagne. ‘That is all he knows about the transac- 
tion, and he does not allow his mind to dwell upon 
the inevitable results. But let Dives go to the auction 
stable himself; let him observe the wistful, homesick 
air (for horses are often homesick) with which the 
old favorites look about them when they are backed 
out of the unaccustomed stalls; then let him stand 
by and see them whipped up and down the stable floor 
to show their tardy paces, and finally knocked down 
to some hard-faced, thin-lipped dealer. It needs very 
little imagination to foresee their after career. To 
begin with, the old companions are separated, —a 
great grief to both, which it requires a long time to 
obliterate. The more active one goes into a country 
livery stable, where he is hacked about by people 
whose only interest in the beast is to take out of him 
the pound of flesh for which they have paid. He has 
no rest on week days, but his Sunday task is the hard- 
est. On that sacred day, the reprobates of the village 
who have arrived at the perfect age of cruelty (which 
I take to be about nineteen or twenty) lash the old 
carriage horse from one public house to another, and 
bring him home exhausted and reeking with sweat. 
