118 HORSEMANSHIP FOR WOMEN. 



PART III. 



LEAPING 



One pleasant winter afternoon a fashionably dressed 

 young man, crop in hand, spur on heel, and mounted 

 on a tall horse, was seen to emerge briskly from a little 

 grove in a gentleman's place, and come to a sudden halt 

 in the level field across which he had intended to gallop. 

 The cause was a new ditch, deep though narrow, stretch- 

 ing across from fence to fence before him. He looked 

 at the obstacle a moment, then up and down the field, 

 and remarked to a gardener, an old Scotchman, who 

 stood looking on, spade in hand, "Well, I suppose I 

 must go back." " I suppose so," said the old fellow, 

 dryly, looking up out of the corner of his eye with an 

 almost imperceptible smile. The young man reddened, 

 hesitated, and then turned away, saying, as if the other's 

 thoughts had been spoken out, " To tell the truth, I 

 don't know whether my horse would if he could, nor 

 whether he could if he would." "An 5 the same o' 

 yourself," muttered the old man in his grizzled beard. 

 The sarcasm was not to be wondered at, as the speaker 

 remembered what he had many a time seen, and very 



