From 8-year old Hilda’s diary:

Uncle Otto phoned this morning and spoke to Grandfather and told him that he wanted to buy a horse and wanted him to look at it first because my Grandfather knows a lot about horses. The horse was in the country, so Grandfather said he would be glad to go and said that he would bring the child along. I was so happy to go and it really wasn’t far out of San Francisco but the street became a road and there were just fields and barns and white houses with porches so it was almost like the country. We went to one of the little houses and there was a very nice lady and gentleman and lots of darling dogs and cats, all kinds. They invited us to sit on the porch and the lady brought us lemonade with chocolate cookies and we sat and visited until we finished the lemonade and ate most of the cookies. Then we went out to the barn to look at the horse Uncle Otto wanted to buy. Grandfather opened the horse’s mouth and looked very carefully at all his teeth and then the man walked the horse around. I thought he was a sweet brown horse but Grandfather told Uncle Otto the horse was old enough to vote and he didn’t buy the horse, and told the man that he would think it over and perhaps come back some other time. I don’t see what being old enough to vote has to do with it. I love the smell of horses and I wouldn’t mind if Grandfather smelled like one.