LEARNING TO RIDE. 



93 



exhibition of at door or covert-side by some inexpert 

 individual, who either sends her clean over the saddle by 

 the superfluous energy of his action, or leaves her to hang 

 fire midway while he stoops to pick up his hat, which he 

 manages to lose through stupidly poking his head forward 

 at the moment at which she is making her spring. I know 

 exactly what it is, and the mortification that it entails. 

 Many of us are, unfortunately, familiar with the feeling 

 that we have done precisely the right thing ourselves, but 

 that some officious and horribly incompetent assistant — 

 or would-be such — has frustrated our efforts, and left us 

 a laughing-stock in the centre of a crowd. It is just like 

 going up to a piano in full possession' of all the difficulties 

 that may mark the song selected to be sung, and being 

 compelled to undergo the torments inflicted by a bad accom- 

 panist, who handicaps the singer by his own utter unfitness 

 for his task. Half the people present are not able to 

 discern whether it is the voice or the piano that is at fault ; 

 they only know that the performance is a failure, and speak 

 of it afterwards as such. So it is with mounting for a 

 ride. Say that there are a hundred persons present at a 

 lawn meet, and you emerge from the house to mount your 

 horse, with the result that you are kept struggling for an 

 awful moment or two betwixt the ground and the saddle 

 by some blushing booby who has offered to put you up, and 

 who will neither do so properly nor suffer you to jump quite 

 down. At least two-thirds of the onlookers will be ready 

 to say the fault is yours. My advice, therefore, is, never 

 leave yourself open to an unpleasantness of this description ; 



