A Duffer. 225 



be too venturesome with the horses in my forthcoming 

 classes, and told him that when they 'came off/ I would 

 allow him only to hand me the gear which I required, so 

 that he might have every advantage in observing the manner 

 in which I 'went about' difficult horses. One day while 

 holding my class at Port Elizabeth, I explained the wrong 

 and the right way of lifting up a horse's hind leg, and to 

 give Dalston some encouragement, I granted him, as I 

 considered, the great favour of showing the assembled 

 gentlemen how an expert would 'pick up' the near hind 

 leg of a vicious mule which stood in the centre of the ring, 

 as a subject for experiment. Dalston apparently miscon- 

 struing my meaning, acted to perfection the part of the 

 typical novice, for the enlightenment of whose ignorance 

 I had come to South Africa so I had declared in lecture 

 and on hand-bill. The mule did not enter into the joke ; 

 for the moment he put his hand on her fetlock (instead of 

 on her hamstring, as he ought to have done), she ' let fly ' 

 and knocked him down with admirable precision. To turn 

 the mishap to good account, I ran forward, gathered up 

 Dalston under one arm, and sawed the air with the other, 

 while I explained that although I had always advised my 

 assistant to observe the principle of point de zele, his youthful 

 enthusiasm had outrun his prudence and that, wishing to 

 demonstrate the wrong method of lifting up a mule's hind leg, 

 he had played his part in too realistic a manner. I lifted him 

 on his feet, whispered an encouraging word or two, looked 

 imploringly at him to see if I dared tell the gentlemen 

 present that he would now show them the right way of 

 picking up the mule's hind leg ; but as I saw the poor fellow 

 was in a state of abject fear, I did the job myself, and 

 passed off the mishap as best I could. When the class was 

 over for that day and while we were returning to our hotel, 

 I explained to Dalston what a chance he had missed in 

 not turning the accident to good account as any true show- 

 man would have done. He replied that he was not a show- 



