236 CLOSE-FITTING SURTOUTS. 



however, always gravely asserted, that but for being 

 crooked she was the finest woman in England. This 

 possibly was the case : the gentleman ought to have 

 been the best judge, and the quantum of attraction 

 the lady possessed was much in favour of his being 

 and remaining so. She stood, however, very high in 

 his estimation, and so in truth she did in that of every 

 other person ; for if one could have straightened her 

 out she would have been about six feet two in her 

 shoes, the sight of which, had the little gentleman 

 been of a reflective turn of mind, would have been 

 enough to have damped his ardour, for they looked 

 uncommonly like two coffins ready for his use, and a 

 capital fit. 



Now, though the last gentleman I allude to did 

 not object to the crooked legs of the lady, my friend 

 did object very much to the straight ones of the horse, 

 so much so that he offered him to me at any price I 

 chose to name. I, more in joke than anything else, 

 said ten pounds. " Done !" said my friend, and 

 Straightlegs was mine. I now resolved to try my 

 hand with him. He had been in the riding school 

 with good riders on him, and I understood they had 

 done him some good, but could make little of him : 

 he seemed to have no joint in his knee. I was neither 

 vain enough nor foolish enough to fancy I could do 

 him any good by riding, so I did not attempt it. 

 That the knee was formed to bend like every other 

 knee, lifting up the leg ascertained : it was then only 

 wanted to be found whether the animal could bend it 

 himself. This I found out in a few minutes. I led 

 him to where some timber had been felled, and made 

 him begin by walking over a small tree about a foot 

 in diameter. This he did some twenty times with 



