e to be very wild, although hard pinched by famine. Of
course Tom would get them all into his pound in about five minutes,
for he himself could neigh in a manner which went to the heart of the
wildest horse. And then he fed them well, and turned them into his great
cattle pen, to abide their time for breaking, when the snow and frost
should be over.

He had gotten more than three hundred now, in this sagacious manner; and
he said it was the finest sight to see their mode of carrying on, how
they would snort, and stamp, and fume, and prick their ears, and rush
backwards, and lash themselves with their long rough tails, and shake
their jagged manes, and scream, and fall upon one another, if a strange
man came anigh them. But as for feeding time, Tom said it was better
than fifty plays to watch them, and the tricks they were up to, to cheat
their feeders, and one another. I asked him how on earth he had managed
to get fodder, in such impassable weather, for such a herd of horses;
but he said that they lived upon straw and sawdust; and he knew that I
did not believe him, any more than about his star-shavings. And this was
just the thing he loved--to mystify honest people, and be a great deal
too knowing. However, I may judge him harshly, because I myself tell
everything.

I asked him what he meant to do with all that enormous lot of horses,
and why he had not exerted his wits to catch the red deer as well. He
said that the latter would have been against the laws of venery, and
might have brought him into trouble, but as for disposing of his stud,
it would give him little difficulty. He would break them, when the
spring weather came on, and deal with them as they required, and keep
the handsomest for breeding. The rest he would despatch to London, where
he knew plenty of horse-dealers; and he doubted not that they would
fetch him as much as ten pounds apiece all round, being now in great
demand. I told him I wished that he might get it; but as it proved
afterwards, he did.

Then he pressed us both on another point, the time for his marriage to
Annie; and mother looked at me to say when, and I looked back at mother.
However, knowing something of the world, and unable to make any further
objection, by reason of his prosperity, I said that we must even do as
the fashionable people did, and allow the maid herself to settle, when
she would leave home and all. And this I spoke with a very bad grace,
being perhaps of an ancient