hicker and larger
By teaching him tricks that he'd rather not know?_

_Oh! why should a horse, for society fitted,
Be doomed to employment so utterly bad,
And why should a coarse-looking man be permitted
To dance on his back on a top-heavy pad?_

Here Ribsy paused once more, and Davy, feeling that he ought to make
some sort of an answer to such a lot of questions, said helplessly, "I
don't know."

"No more do I," said Ribsy, tossing his head scornfully.

_It made me a wreck, with no hope of improvement,
Too feeble to race with an invalid crab;
I'm wry in the neck, with a rickety movement
Peculiarly suited for drawing a cab._

_They pinch me with straps, and they bruise me with buckles,
They drive me too rapidly over the stones;--
A reason, perhaps, why a number of knuckles
Have lately appeared on my prominent bones._

"I see them," cried Davy, eagerly; "I thought they were corns."

"Thank you," said Ribsy, haughtily. "As the next verse is the last you
needn't trouble yourself to make any further observations."

_I dream of a spot which I used to roam over
In infancy's days, with a frolicsome skip,
Content with my lot, which was planted with clover,
And never annoyed by the crack of a whip._

_But I think my remarks will determine the question,
Of why I am bony and thin as a rail;
I'm off for some larks, to improve my digestion,
And point the stern moral conveyed by my tail._

Here Ribsy got upon his legs again, and, after a refreshing fillip with
his heels, cantered off along the road, whistling as he went. Two large
blue-bottle flies were on his back, and his tail was flying around,
with an angry whisk, like a pin-wheel; but, as he disappeared in the
distance, the flies were still sitting calmly on the ridge of his spine,
apparently enjoying the scenery.

Davy was about to start out again on his journey, when he heard a voice
shouting "Hi! Hi!" and, looking back, he saw the poor cabman coming
along the road on a brisk trot, dragging his cab after him. He had on
Ribsy's harness, and seemed to be in a state of tremendous excitement.

As he came up with Davy the door of the cab flew open again, and the
three-legged stools came tumbling out, followed by a dense cloud of
dust.

"Get in! Get in!" shouted the cabman, excitedly. "Never mind the dust;
I've turned it on to make believe we're going tremendo