e/ . 



60 THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER. 



and after having cheapened the nag to a very low price, 

 considering his figure, we bought him, after such a 

 trial as this sort of places afford, and this sort of 

 persons allow. On the next day we mounted our 

 purchase, and proceeded five or six miles on the Hert 

 fordshire road, the horse performing well in all his 

 paces, riding to a good mouth, and being apparently as 

 tractable as one could wish. We were, however, still 

 aware that either he must have been stolen, or that, 

 according to stable slang, ' a screw was loose' some 

 where, which would soon jingle, and a turnpike-gale 

 was to unfold the secret ; for this gate he would not 

 go through, not from any fear of the gate itself, but 

 from mere restiveness. We battled it with him for 

 some time, but it was to no purpose, and we were too 

 well acquainted with horses to push matters to extremi- 

 ties ; for even had we forced him through at this time, 

 he would, without doubt, have repeated the same trick 

 whenever the same spirit moved him. A radical cure 

 was our object, and so we refrained from any further 

 attempts to force him. onwards, but, placing his head 

 under the wall of the toll-house bar, we sat quietly on 

 his back an hour. We then tried to pass him through 

 the gate ; but as his determination appeared to remain 

 in full force, we gave him another hour of stationary 

 riding, during which he was evidently very uneasy and 

 oppressed with the weight he carried, unrelieved as he 

 was by any change of position or any locomotion. At 



