earning; and he can't do a thing until he
understands what you mean, and how you want it done. What good would
it do for me to ask a man a question in French if he did not know a
word of the language? I get him used to the word, and show him what
I want. If it is to climb up somewhere, I gently put his foot up and
have him keep it there until I am ready to have it come down, and
then I take it down myself. I never let the horse do it. The same with
other things, showing him how, and by words. They know a great number
of words. My horses are not influenced by signs or motions when they
are on the stage. They use their intelligence and memory, and they
associate ideas and are required to obey. They learn a great deal by
observing one another. One watches and learns by seeing the others.
I taught one horse to kneel, by first bending his knee myself, and
putting him into position. After he had learned, I took another in
who kept watch all the time, and learned partly by imitation. They are
social creatures; they love each other's company."

Most of these horses have been together now for several years, and
are fond of one another. They appear to keep the run of the whole
performance, and listen and notice like children in a school when
one or more of their number goes out to recite. It was extremely
interesting to observe them when the leap-frog game was going on.
Owing to the smallness of the stage, it was difficult for the horse
who was to make the jump to get under headway, and several times
poor Sprite, or whichever it was, would turn abruptly to make another
start, upon which every horse on her side would dart out for a chance
at giving her a nip as she went by. They all seemed throughout the
entire exhibition to feel a sort of responsibility, or at least a
pride in it, as if "this is _our_ school. See how well Bucephalus
minds, or how badly Brutus behaves! This is _our_ regiment. Don't
we march well? How fine and grand, how gallant and gay we are!" And
the wonder of it all is, not so much what any one horse can do, or
the sense of humor they show, or the great number of words they
understand, but the mental processes and nice calculation they show
in the feats where they are associated in complex ways, which require
that each must act his part independently and mind nothing about it if
another happens to make a mistake.

[Illustration: VICTORY.]

To obtain any adequate representation of these horses while
performi