Where there is a gentleman in the family, a dogcart is the most convenient vehicle which can be kept; but as that would not be suitable for a lady, we contrived to make the back seat of the carriage do duty for the well of the dog-cart, and it was astonishing how many light packages we managed to “stow away” in it.  I will not dilate on the pleasant drives through quiet lanes, of the delight afforded to the children when allowed to have a ride on “Bobby,” nor of the great facility it gave us of being out of doors in winter, when, as was very frequently the case, the state of the roads was such as to render walking an impossibility; still, I hope I have stated sufficient to give my readers a good idea of the great pleasure they will derive from keeping a pony; and I will now, with the bills of the miller and farrier before me, proceed to show the sum for which it may be kept.  Our pony cost for food, from the 4th of January to the 24th of December in the same year, $46.66.  He consumed during that period five quarters of oats, at $8 the quarter, and five bushels of beans, which cost $6.66.  The farrier’s bill for the same time amounted to $5.91.  Perhaps it will be as well to copy this account, as it will clearly show how often it is requisite to change the shoes of a horse.  Of course a great deal must depend on the quantity of work he does; ours was certainly not spared, though we do not deserve the character so usually given to ladies, of being unmerciful to horses:  “running them off their legs,” “thinking they can never get enough out of the poor beasts,” “driving them as if they thought they could go for ever,” are accusations brought against the ladies of a family where horses are kept.

The following is a copy of the bill for our pony’s shoes for twelve months:—­

Feb. 24.     Four removes               $0.33
March 22.    Four shoes                   .75
April 20.    Four removes                 .33
May 5.       Two shoes                    .37 1/2
June 9.      Four shoes                   .75
July 8.      Four shoes                   .75
Aug. 9      Four shoes                   .75
Sept. 1.     Four shoes                   .75
Oct. 11.     Two shoes                    .37 1/2
Oct. 25.     Two shoes                    .37 1/2
Dec. 24.     Two shoes                    .37 1/2
$5.91

Add to this the miller’s bill $46.66
$52.57

and we have the whole expense of keeping a pony for one year.  “Oh! but,” some one may exclaim, “you have put down nothing for straw and hay, and horses require a great deal of both.”  Quite true; but then in the country, if you do not keep a horse, you must buy manure for your garden, and that will cost you quite as much as if you purchased straw; and as for the hay, did it not come off the “four-acre farm?”

It is one of the great advantages of the country that nothing is lost, and thus the straw which figures so largely in the bill of a London corn-chandler, and which, when converted into manure, is the perquisite of your groom, becomes in the country the means of rendering your garden productive.