6 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 
appurtenant to the stable. (Not everybody, indeed, 
is so fortunately situated, but still the conditions just 
mentioned are by no means uncommon.) Now let us 
suppose further that you go into the market or to 
some private person and purchase, as you may easily 
do for forty or fifty dollars, an old, broken-down 
horse, of whom a long hard day’s work has been, and 
unless you intervene will for some years yet con- 
tinue to be extracted. Take him home, and watch 
the quick transition from misery to happiness. He 
comes into your stable with stiff, painful steps; his 
legs swollen from hock and knee to ankle; his ribs 
clearly visible through a rough, staring coat; and, 
above all, with that strained, anxious expression of 
the eye which nobody who has once seen and under- 
stood it can ever expel from his memory. It is the 
expression of despair. You take off his shoes, give 
him a run at grass or a deep bed of straw in a com- 
fortable loose box, and forthwith the old horse begins 
to improve. Little by little, the expression of his eye 
changes, the swelling goes out of his legs, and it will 
not be long before he cuts a caper; a stiff and un- 
gainly one, to be sure, but still a caper, indicative of 
health and happiness. He will neigh at your ap- 
proach, and gladly submit his head for a caress, 
whereas at first he would have shrunk in terror from 
any such advances. (It may be ten years since a 
hand was laid upon him in kindness.) If you have 
any work for him to do, the old horse will perform 
it with alacrity, exerting himself out of gratitude; 
he will even flourish off in harness with the airs of 
a colt, as who should say, “There is life in me yet; 
don’t send me to the knacker; behold my strength 
