12 HOW TO EDUCATE HORSES. 



FATHER AN EXPERT HORSEMAN. 



This required a large amount of riding and teaming, 

 and my father always had from seven to twelve of the 

 best horses. He had on the road, all of the time, at 

 least fifty pedler wagons, with which the leaf was dis- 

 tributed and the hats collected. Once, on one order, 

 40,000 dozen hats were moved in a night from Athol 

 to Barre. When my father heard of a runaway or 

 vicious animal, he would go miles to buy it, claiming 

 that only the best horses were vicious. He went to 

 Londonderry to buy a horse "warranted to run away 

 and break his neck the first time he was hitched." 

 After completing the bargain at the hotel, my father, 

 by ringing a bell, attracted a crowd and invited them 

 in to take something preparatory to having his neck 

 broken. Then, hitching the animal up, he drove off 

 and landed at Deerfield, eighty miles away, the next 

 morning. He declared that the best way to cure a 

 runaway was " to show him the end of the road." I 

 never knew him to have a sick or lame horse, for, 

 although he gave his animals hard drives, he always 

 took good care of them after so doing. He never 

 drove less than ten miles an hour on the road. 



father's western experiences. 

 In 1864, buying grain for Government offered better 

 prospects for money-making, and, settling own in 

 Clifton, Iroquois County, Illinois, my father built a 

 large elevator, the largest in the State at that time, 

 and was doing an immense business when the war 

 closed. The demand for corn suddenly stopping, an 

 immense amount was left on my father's hands, 

 the loss upon which ruined him financially. Some- 

 what discouraged, he returned to New England and 

 to the palm-leaf hat business, although on a much 



