d much better," which leads me to suppose that a person, in
order to be a first-rate groom, must have something in him when he is
born which I had not, and, indeed, which many other people have not who
pretend to be grooms. What does the reader think?

CHAPTER XXV

Stable Hartshorn--How to Manage a Horse on a Journey--Your Best Friend.

Of one thing I am certain, that the reader must be much delighted with
the wholesome smell of the stable, with which many of these pages are
redolent; what a contrast to the sickly odours exhaled from those of some
of my contemporaries, especially of those who pretend to be of the highly
fashionable class, and who treat of reception-rooms, well may they be
styled so, in which dukes, duchesses, earls, countesses, archbishops,
bishops, mayors, mayoresses--not forgetting the writers themselves, both
male and female--congregate and press upon one another; how cheering, how
refreshing, after having been nearly knocked down with such an
atmosphere, to come in contact with genuine stable hartshorn. Oh! the
reader shall have yet more of the stable, and of that old ostler, for
which he or she will doubtless exclaim, "Much obliged!"--and, lest I
should forget to perform my promise, the reader shall have it now.

I shall never forget an harangue from the mouth of the old man, which I
listened to one warm evening as he and I sat on the threshold of the
stable, after having attended to some of the wants of a batch of coach-
horses. It related to the manner in which a gentleman should take care
of his horse and self, whilst engaged in a journey on horseback, and was
addressed to myself, on the supposition of my one day coming to an
estate, and of course becoming a gentleman.

"When you are a gentleman," said he, "should you ever wish to take a
journey on a horse of your own, and you could not have a much better than
the one you have here eating its fill in the box yonder--I wonder, by the
bye, how you ever came by it--you can't do better than follow the advice
I am about to give you, both with respect to your animal and yourself.
Before you start, merely give your horse a couple of handfuls of corn and
a little water, somewhat under a quart, and if you drink a pint of water
yourself out of the pail, you will feel all the better during the whole
day; then you may walk and trot your animal for about ten miles, till you
come to some nice inn, where you may get down and see your horse led in