Pleasant and good it is to ride the
same horse, to sit in the same chair, to wear the same old coat.
That man who offered twenty pounds' reward for a lost carpet-bag full
of old boots was a sage, and I wish I knew him. Why should one
change one's place, any more than one's wife or one's children? Is a
hermit-crab, slipping his tail out of one strange shell into another,
in the hopes of its fitting him a little better, either a dignified,
safe, or graceful animal? No; George Riddler was a true philosopher.
'Let vules go sarching vur and nigh,
We bides at Whum, my dog and I;'
and become there, not only wiser, but more charitable; for the
oftener one sees, the better one knows; and the better one knows, the
more one loves.
It is an easy philosophy; especially in the case of the horse, where
a man cannot afford more than one, as I cannot. To own a stud of
horses, after all, is not to own horses at all, but riding-machines.
Your rich man who rides Crimaea in the morning, Sir Guy in the
afternoon, and Sultan to-morrow, and something else the next day, may
be a very gallant rider: but it is a question whether he enjoys the
pleasure which one horse gives to the poor man who rides him day
after day; one horse, who is not a slave, but a friend; who has
learnt all his tricks of voice, hand, heel, and knows what his master
wants, even without being told; who will bear with his master's
infirmities, and feels secure that his master will bear with his in
turn.
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