IN THE BIDING-SCHOOL. 57 



were too inexperienced to know it, but bad 

 riders long ago deprived Billy of any likeness to 

 a rocking-chair. He knows that if he should 

 let himself go freely, you would come near to 

 making him rear by pulling on the reins, and so 

 he goes along ''one, two, three, one, two, three," 

 deliberately, and you feel and look, as you hear 

 an unsympathetic gazer in the gallery remark, 

 "like a pea in a hot skillet." You prided your- 

 self on keeping your temper unruffled under 

 the wise criticism of your master, but in truth 

 you did not really believe him. You said to 

 yourself that he was too particular, and you 

 even thought of informing him that he must 

 not expect perfection immediately, but this 

 piece of impudence, spoken by a person who, 

 for aught that you can tell, does not know Billy 

 from a clotheshorse, convince's you instantly, 

 and you decide to canter no more, but to trot, 

 and so you "shorten your reins and strike him 

 on the flank." 



As you shorten the right rein more than the 

 left, and as your whip falls as lightly as if you 

 meant the blow for yourself, Billy goes to the 

 centre of the ring, but you jerk him to the wall, 



