104 IN THE BIDING-SCHOOL. 



rather too high for grace, indeed, but making the 

 effort very slight for you, and enabling you 

 to think about your elbows, and sitting to the 

 right and keeping your right shoulder back and 

 your right foot close to the saddle and pointing 

 downward, and your left knee also close, and 

 " about seventy-five other things," as you sum 

 up the case to yourself. Thanks to this, you are 

 enabled to continue until the music stops, and 

 Theodore says, approvingly, " Well, you can ride 

 a little." 



" A very little," your master says. " She has 

 learned something, of course, but it would be 

 the unkindest of flattery for me to tell her that 

 she does well." 



" One must begin to ride in early childhood," 

 Theodore says. 



" One should begin to be taught in child- 

 hood," the master amends, "but it is not abso- 

 lutely necessary. Some of the best riders in 

 the French Army never mounted until they 

 went to the military school, and some of the 

 best riders at West Point only know a horse by 

 sight until they fall into the clutches of the 

 masters there, and then ! " His countenance 

 expresses deep commiseration. 



