210 HOBSE POBTKAITUKE. 



so many dread the approach, of, to me is as enjoyable as 

 the more balmy months of summer ; and the many happy 

 days and nights I have spent in the most delightful social 

 intercourse with these friends, mark it as a time that will 

 always be green in the tablets of memory, the remem- 

 brance being a "joy forever." 



During this last visit, my friend's business was so urgent 

 that I could not assent to his absenting himself from im- 

 portant duties to lounge the time away with me ; so, when 

 tired of fishing in the Silver Lake, I would mount a horse, 

 and ride six or seven miles to the house of a gentleman, 

 one of my especial favorites. He is nearly seventy years 

 old, yet with feelings as youthful as many possess when 

 half a century younger! His personal appearance is my 

 beau-ideal of matured, manly beauty. Age has taken 

 away none of the lines that marked him for a model in 

 his younger days, while it has added the glory of silver 

 hair and beard. But I may as well describe him minutely, 

 as I see you are somewhat anxious to know whether my 

 eye is as correct in the knowledge of human perfection, 

 as you admit it was in finding the Falcon the type of 

 whatever is super-excellent in the horse. This old gentle- 

 man is by birth English, and his appearance denotes his 

 nationality. His height is a trifle over five feet ten, (he 

 proper elevation for a man, as sixteen hands is for the 

 horse that carries him. His shoulders are broad, conveying 

 the idea of strength, without being disproportioned to the 

 rest of his body. His limbs are long and muscular, term- 

 inating in medium-sized feet and hands. There is a little 

 tendency to embonpoint, just giving the waistcoat the right 

 set without any approach to corpulency. You imagine, if 

 taken away from country life and made a bank president 

 or railway director, he would be at least a score of pounds 

 heavier, and your surmises are probably correct. You 

 can see that daily exercise in the open air gives that 



