THE LIFE OF A SPORTSMAN 19 



and she has twice had him clothed. You know, doctor, 

 his father worked in her flower-garden." " But the tutor, 

 Master Francis ? " continued Esculapius. " Oh, bother 

 the tutor ! " replied the coachman ; " they tells me he 

 is a great scholard, but he's as soft as a pat of butter ; 

 Master Francis can soon gammon him, as he has often 

 done before. And as to master, I know what he will 

 say : ' Never let a horse hit you in your face with his 

 head, Frank ; it is a symptom of bad horsemanship. 

 When a horse plunges, or rears, always keep your head 

 and person a little inclined to the left side of him, and 

 then, should he lose his balance, and fall backward, you 

 slip off before he comes to the ground.' I heard him say 

 those very words to Master Raby the other day." Here 

 the coachman and his young master took their departure 

 homeward, the former repeating his lesson, and assuring 

 Frank, at the same time, that if he would come into the 

 servants' hall before he went to bed, he would clap a raw 

 beef-steak to his face, as the fighting-men do, which would 

 take out all the blackness by the morrow. 



The hour of dessert having arrived, in walked Master 

 Francis with his brother and two sisters, looking as 

 demure as a saint. " What have you done to your face, 

 my dear ? " inquired Lady Charlotte ; " it is much swollen 

 above your left eye." "Rodney threw up his head 

 with me this morning, mamma, and struck me in the 

 face," was his reply. " Oh, Frank ! " said Mr. Raby, 

 "how could you let him do that? A good horseman 

 never suffers from such an accident. Should his horse 

 begin to play tricks, he always keeps his own head 

 inclined towards the left, and then he cannot be struck 

 as you have been. I have known instances of persons 

 having nearly every tooth knocked out by blows from 

 horses' heads." Frank said nothing, but refused to eat an 

 orange, until twice asked to do so. As he was peeling it, 

 the wound on his hand appeared. "Why, Frank," ex- 

 claimed Lady Charlotte, " you have been in perils to-day ; 

 did Rodney throw you ? " " No, mamma," he replied, " I 

 was taking a shot at a rook out of Jem's gun, and it was 

 loaded so high that it struck me on my hand. But it will 

 soon be well, and coachman says if I come to him before 

 I go to bed to-night, he will do for me what the boxers 

 do clap a raw beef-steak under my night-cap, and I 

 shall have no black eye to-morrow." " Nasty fellow ! " 



