FOR SALE— A THOROUGHBRED NAG. 



these pranks. Not only so, but she played off again upon mc 

 all the tricks of the morning-. She lay down and rolled in the 

 road, and managed to give my foot something of a bruise. My 

 patience was entirely gone ; I whipped her with a will. She 

 rose, filled with rage and surprise, and tore away home like the 

 wind. When we came to that gap in the fence again, up the 

 bank she shot and under the tree — in whose branches I left my 

 second hat — and away across the field. Now came her final, 

 her grand coiip. I rode her straight at the hedge, expecting her 

 to clear it, from the way she took the ground ; but she stopped 

 dead, with her forefeet in the roots of the hedge, and over I'd 

 have gone head foremost into the ditch, like a sack of coals shot 

 by a coalheaver, had I not feared some such catastrophe and 

 gripped the saddle according to Joe's advice. 



I got home about tea-time. 



' O, here you are ! I thought it was all up with you,' said 

 Joe cheerfully. 



' Well,' said my father, ' how did you get on, James ?' 



* Get on, father ? It was not the getting on — it was the keep- 



mg on 



' That's it,' laughed Joe. 



My father was silent. 



I entered the house. I saw my mother had been crying. 



' My dear boy,' she exclaimed, ' what a figure ! You're 

 crusted with dirt ! Where's your hat ? Are you hurt much ? 

 Get the tea made, Sissy. O, it's a mercy you've a whole bone 

 left in your skin !' 



' That you haven't walked home with your head under your 

 arm,' said Sissy. 



' I did almost leave it stuck in an oak,' said I. 



' No-o !' exclaimed Sissy incredulously. 



' I've been so dreadfully alarmed,' said my mother, looking 

 tenderly at me, 'all the day. You've been gone six or seven hours.' 



' Five and a half, mother,' said I. 



' Wherever have you been so long ?' 



Whilst I was relating my adventures, my father came in and 

 sat down. When I had finished, 



' Now promise,' said my mother, ' that you will never ride 

 that brute again.' 



'•We-el,' I hesitated and looked at my father. 



* O, he's going to try her again to-morrow,' said he, with a 

 twinkle in his eye. 



