IX THE BIDIXG-SCIIOOL. 141 



X. 



— Ye couldn't have made him a rider, 

 And then ye know, boys will be boys, and hosses, 



— well, hosses is hosses ! 

 Harte. 



|HEN you and Nell go to take your 

 exercise ride, Esmeralda, you must 

 assume the air of having ridden 

 before you were able to walk, and of 

 being so replete with equestrian knowledge 

 that the " acquisition of another detail would 

 cause immediate dissolution," as the Normal 

 college girl said when asked if she knew how 

 to teach. You must insist on having a certain 

 horse, no matter how much inconvenience it 

 may create, and, if possible, you should order 

 him twenty-four hours in advance, stipulating 

 that nobody shall mount him in the interval, 

 and, while waiting for him to be brought in 

 from the stable, you should proclaim that he is 

 a wonderfully spirited, not to say vicious, creat- 

 ure, but that you are not in the smallest degree 



