"To my mind," said the doctor, "Jerry's knee action does not merit the
extravagant praise you bestowed upon it. It is not high enough to
please me."
"There you are wrong," sais I, "that's the mistake most people make.
It is not the height of the action, but the nature of it, that is to
be regarded. A high-stepping horse pleases the eye more than the
judgment. He seems to go faster than he does. There is not only power
wasted in it, but it injures the foot. My idea is this; you may
compare a man to a man, and a woman to a woman, for the two, including
young and old, make the world. You see more of them and know more
about 'em than horses, for you have your own structure to examine and
compare them by, and can talk to them, and if they are of the feminine
gender, hear their own account of themselves. They can speak, for they
were not behind the door when tongues were given out, I can tell you.
The range of your experience is larger, for you are always with them,
but how few hosses does a man own in his life. How few he examines,
and how little he knows about other folk's beasts. They don't live
with you, you only see them when you mount, drive, or visit the
stable. They have separate houses of their own, and pretty buildings
they are too in general, containin' about as much space for sleepin'
as a berth on board a ship, and about as much ventilation too, and the
poor critters get about as little exercise as passengers, and are just
about worth as much as they are when they land for a day's hard tramp.
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