ii6 TALES OF THE TURF AND THE CHASE. 



over her shoulder towards her tail in a most constrained posi- 

 tion ; she had one hind-leg over the halter. I saw I could do 

 nothing for her — she must lie there till she could burst herself 

 free. She made a few ineffectual dashes, kicks, and snorts ; 

 then, with swelling ribs and a tremendous snort, she put out her 

 strength. The leather snapped beneath her chin, and she stood 

 with all her feet out apart (as if she meant to fly), and looked 

 about her. Then, with a big sigh, she lay down and was quiet. 



VI. 



Soon after this, it was possible to begin the work of breaking 

 in. For two or three nights after the weaning and watching my 

 sleep was over-ridden by that mare. In wakeful intervals I 

 endeavoured to mature my green opinions on the best mode of 

 training. I convinced myself by certain links of reasoning, which 

 I lost in my sleep, that the too common w^hack and halloo — 

 ' crack whip and dash away' — method (if method it were) would 

 never do with a creature of her high mettle. I would use her 

 gently. I recalled the saying of an old gentleman, who had 

 been much in the society of horses, that he had often struck a 

 horse, but had never knowm the blow do any good, and I resolved 

 that under no provocation would I strike her. I sleepily argued 

 with myself that the doctrine of original sin was inapplicable to 

 horses : there was no such thing as inborn vice among them ; 

 what seemed such was only either youthful mischief, or ignor- 

 ance, or, at the very worst, fear. 



One evening, in the absence of my father, I flaunted forth 

 these revolutionary notions before a sympathetic but unpractical 

 female audience, consisting of my mother. Sissy, the village 

 school-mistress (an old maid of prodigious learning and vast 

 powers of utterance), and the old retriever dog. The ladies 

 applauded my humane opinions ; the old dog barked and 

 howled as if in dissent and lamentation. Then the lady of pro- 

 digious lore, with a delicious roll in her voice, asked Mister 

 James if he had never heard how it was that man was at all able 

 to restrain and dominate so noble and fiery an animal as the 

 horse. 



Well, I replied, casting about in my mind, perhaps I had. 



That Nature, in her beneficent wisdom, had so constructed 

 the lens of the horse's eye that a man appeared to him of gigantic 

 size, huge and towering ? 



