nd in other
walks. One of them, who paid him a prefatory visit in his library, in
five minutes augmented from six to seven hundred and fifty pounds the
weight of a pony-horse, which he wished to sell. ("What you want," said
the Chevaliers, "is a pony-horse," and my friend, gratefully catching at
the phrase, had gone about saying he wanted a pony-horse. After that,
hulking brutes of from eleven to thirteen hundred pounds were every day
brought to him as pony-horses.) The same dealer came another day with a
mustang, in whom was no fault, and who had every appearance of speed,
but who was only marking time as it is called in military drill, I
believe, when he seemed to be getting swiftly over the ground; he showed
a sociable preference for the curbstone in turning corners, and was
condemned, to be replaced the next evening by a pony-horse that a child
might ride or drive, and that especially would not shy. Upon experiment,
he shied half across the road, and the fact was reported to the dealer.
He smiled compassionately. "What did he shy _at_?"

"A wheelbarrow."

"Well! I never see the hoss _yet_ that _wouldn't_ shy at a wheelbarrow."

My friend owned that a wheelbarrow was of an alarming presence, but he
had his reserves respecting the self-control and intelligence of this
pony-horse. The dealer amiably withdrew him, and said that he would
bring next day a horse--if he could get the owner to part with a family
pet--that _would_ suit; but upon investigation it appeared that this
treasure was what is called a calico-horse, and my friend, who was
without the ambition to figure in the popular eye as a stray
circus-rider, declined to see him.

These adventurous spirits were not squeamish. They thrust their hands
into the lathery mouths of their brutes to show the state of their
teeth, and wiped their fingers on their trousers or grass afterwards,
without a tremor, though my friend could never forbear a shudder at the
sight. If sometimes they came with a desirable animal, the price was far
beyond his modest figure; but generally they seemed to think that he did
not want a desirable animal. In most cases, the pony-horse pronounced
sentence upon himself by some gross and ridiculous blemish; but
sometimes my friend failed to hit upon any tenable excuse for refusing
him. In such an event, he would say, with an air of easy and candid
comradery, "Well, now, what's the matter with him?" And then the dealer,
passing his hand down on