120 TALES OF THE TURF AND THE CHASE. 



say she plays such tricks. She's as docile and good a thing as 

 can be.' I was silent. 



At the end of the week she seemed so submissive and tract- 

 able that my father thought she and I might very well be trusted 

 alone. I, however, still distrusted the sullen craft of her eye ; 

 and that Jew nose, I said to myself, I could never be reconciled 

 to. I saddled and bridled her, with the least tremor of anxiety 

 disturbing me. I was going, for security's sake, to put a curb- 

 bit in her mouth ; but father said, ' O, fie, no ; you'll spoil her 

 mouth.' So I allowed her the usual champ-bit. She grabbed 

 at it when it was presented to her mouth, as if she understood 

 how near she had been to losing it. I led her out ; Joe came 

 forward to hold her head. 



' Let him mount by himself,' said my father. ' She must 

 learn to stand without being held.' 



She stepped round and round in a staid funereal style, as if 

 performing at a circus. At length I got into the saddle, and, 

 quick as thought, she bolted with me, past Joe, back into the 

 stable. I had just time to think of Absalom's fate before I leant 

 far back over her tail and passed under the low lintel of the 

 door. I was much nettled, but I restrained myself I got off 

 and led her out again in silence, exchanging with the brute a 

 glance of defiance. She wanted to go through the circus per- 

 formance again. My blood was rising ; I shut my lips and was 

 resolute. I held the rein, but made no effort to mount, till she 

 stopped and looked at Joe, and from Joe to me, as much as to 

 say, ' What does this mean ?' Whilst she was considering this, I 

 leaped to the saddle, and away she went, as on the first day I 

 bestrode her, to scrape me off against a fence. Failing in this, 

 she darted forward a few yards into the road, stopped dead, and 

 kicked clear up like a donkey. 



' Grip hold o' the saddle be'ind,' cried Joe. 



Again was she disappointed. She whisked her tail smartly 

 and dashed away up the lane, as if possessed by all the devils 

 that drove the herd of swine to commit suicide. I pulled my 

 very hardest to rein her in ; but the champ-bit could restrain her 

 no more than a rotten stick. ' Well, my pet,' said I aloud, ' go 

 as hard as you can pelt, but I'll stick to you.' Forthwith she 

 began to prance and rear. A gate by chance stood open, and 

 before she was aware I had touched her with my heel and she 

 was in the ploughed field. After plunging and rearing for some 

 time, till I thought the next moment she would fall backward 



