Then away they went, John Gilpin like, Doctor Wallace's coat-tails
and hair streaming out behind.

There was no more balking in the course of the trip, and no one
(save, possibly, the horse) had any twinges of conscience to keep him
awake that night. The incident is brimful of pedagogy in that it
shows that, in order to cure a horse of an attack of balking, you
have but to distract his mind from his balking and get him to
thinking of something else. Before this occurrence taught me the
better way, I was quite prone, in dealing with a balking boy, to hold
his mind upon the subject of balking. I told him how unseemly it
was, how humiliated his father and mother would be, how he could not
grow up to be a useful citizen if he yielded to such tantrums; in
short, I ran the gamut of all the pedagogical bromides, and so kept
his mind centred upon balking. Now that I have learned better, I
strive to divert his mind to something eke, and may ask him to go
upon some pleasant errand that he may gain some new experiences.
When he returns he has forgotten that he was balking and recounts his
experiences most delightfully.

Ed was one of the balkiest boys I ever had in my school. His attacks
would often last for days, and the more attention you paid to him the
worse he balked. In the midst of one of these violent and prolonged
attacks a lady came to school who, in the kindness of her generous
nature, was proposing to give a boy Joe (now a city alderman) a
Christmas present of a new hat. She came to invoke my aid in trying
to discover the size of Joe's head. I readily undertook the task,
which loomed larger and larger as I came fully to realize that I was
the sole member of the committee of ways and means. In my dire
perplexity I saw Ed grouching along the hall. Calling him to one
side, I explained to the last detail the whole case, and confessed
that I did not know how to proceed. At once his face brightened, and
he readily agreed to make the discovery for me; and in half an hour I
had the information I needed and Ed's face was luminous. Yes, Joe
got the hat and Ed quit balking. If Doctor Wallace had not gone to
Marathon that day I can scarcely imagine what might have happened to
Ed; and Joe might not have received a new hat.

I have often wondered whether a horse has a sense of humor. I know a
boy has, and I very strongly suspect that the horse has. It was one
of my tasks in boyhood to take the horses down to the