Horses' Whims

Human beings are scarcely more "notionaly" animals than horses, most of which have deeply rooted objection to some harmless thing or another, and try to get away from it with all possible rapidity. The two horses employed in carting in this village--well fed animals that are a credit to their owners--both have pet aversions, which they exhibit on all available occasions. Mr. Gatehell's hates hogs, and one day not long ago ran away with a heavy load of goods in his waggon just because a little pig came out from under the railway station and said "whoof" at him. Mr. Quible's horse isn't a bit afraid of anything living; but he believes that various kinds of dry goods possess vicious propensities, and the one great terror of his existence is an empty bag. Consequently when, on Tuesday morning last, one was shaken a few feet in front of him, he set off home at his best speed, the great packing case that had just been put into the waggon bouncing up and down with the violence that threatened destruction to the bottom-boards. Though a splendid draught horse, he is not much on the run, resembling an India-rubber ball rather than a locomotive in his mode of progression, and he was caught and stopped before any harm was done. It wouldn't do for the little mare that is in partnership with Moffatt & McFarland in the grocery and provision business to scare at bags or pigs, and she doesn't care a straw for either; but she is as much afraid of a newspaper as a councillor or a school trustee who is conscious of having done wrong, and probably if she got a peep into the Gazette office on publication day she would not stand as quietly next door to it as she now does. Of course it shows a lamentable want of sense in horses to give way to such fears; but some of the beliefs and superstitions of the human race are not a whit more reasonable.