54 IN THE RIDING-SCHOOL. 



You will blush over the memory of that ques- 

 tion next year, although now you feel that you 

 have been very ladylike, even very Christian, in 

 putting it, for have you not shown that your 

 temper is unruffled and that you are thinking 

 how to make others happy ? 



Your master answers that his horse may be 

 trusted, and that if you prefer to take your own 

 time to change from the canter to the trot, 

 rather than to wait for him to say, " Now/' you 

 may do so. And then the canter begins again, 

 and, after a round or two, you try the mouth- 

 sawing process, doing it very well, for it is an 

 ugly little trick at best, rarely found necessary 

 by an accomplished rider, and beginners seldom 

 fail to succeed in it at the very first attempt. If 

 it were pretty and graceful, it would be more 

 difficult. Down to the trot comes the obedient 

 Charles, and up you go one, two, three, four ! and 

 down you come, until you really expect to find 

 yourself and the saddle in the tan between the 

 two halves of your horse. 



Of what can the creature's spinal column 

 be made, to bear such a succession of blows J 

 You begin by pitying the horse, but after 



