SEAT ON A HORSE. 35 



If the rider happens fortunately to have the saddle 

 between him and the horse, his legs merely sustain a 

 heavy weight, from which they are harmlessly extricated 

 the instant the animal rises. 



Should he happen ^^fortunately to have the girths 

 between him and the horse, he lies, like Ariel in the 

 cloven pine, "painfully imprisoned," in a predicament 

 of which it is impossible for any one to foretell the 

 results. 



As the quadruped is always more or less cowed by his 

 fall, he remains usually for about a minute or two as still 

 as if he were dead. 



All of a sudden, however, just as if a bayonet had been 

 run into him, he struggles to rise. 



To do so it is necessary that all his feet should take 

 hold of the ground. This they are prevented from doing 

 by the rider's boots, which, operating as a handspike under 

 the body, keep it in a horizontal position, thereby causing 

 the four legs, like two pairs of blacksmith's sledge-ham- 

 mers, to continue to strike heavily towards each other. 



Between them lies, acting in this little tragedy the part 

 of Anvil, the poor rider, who can only avoid the hard 

 blows of two fore iron shoes, by wincing from them to 

 within the reach of two hind ones. 



This violent struggle eventually ends by the horse rising, 

 leaving on the field of battle, slightly, seriously, or des- 



c 2 



