322 The Leather Plater. 



and, as I considered that I had bought the colt rather out of the 

 fire, I at once christened him " Chance." 



He was delivered next day, and two days after I had a levee of 

 hard-riding friends in the neighbourhood to look at him. Many 

 had heard of him, some had seen him j but Mr. Hawthorn's ver- 

 dict on that queer-looking near hock had spoilt his sale, and no one 

 dare venture on him, although more than one fancied him very 

 much. It is always good fun to hear the criticisms which are 

 passed on a new purchase, especially if you have not taken the coun- 

 sel of the criticisers beforehand. Nothing is so easy as to find fault. 

 " He stands on very short legs," observed one. "That hock will 

 never stand -, I'd draw the iron over it at once if he were mine," 

 observed a second. " He'll never have substance enough to carry 

 your weight across our country. He may make a galloper for a 

 mile, but if he should not, he'll never bring you twenty pounds," 

 said a third ; and so on. 



Jack Russell was the only one of them who did not try to put me 

 out of conceit with him. He never gave an opinion hastily, espe- 

 cially about a horse ; and all he said was, " Bring him up to my 

 Lodge to-morrow morning, and after that, I'll tell you what I think 

 of the colt." 



Accordingly, I took him up in the morning, and the colt under- 

 went an hour's trial in the hands of a man who was never deceived 

 in what a horse could do or ought to do. He galloped him, he 

 cantered him ; he put him over every sort of fence to be found on 

 his farm, and when he took him back to the stable, observed to me, 

 " You've got something a little better there than you're aware of, 

 old fellow ; and you can give my respectful compliments to Frank, 

 and tell him it was his hands, and not the colt's fore-legs, that were 

 tied, for I could lift that colt over any fence that it's fair to ride a 

 horse at." 



He proposed to take the entire management of the colt off my 

 hands keep him and train him, on the condition that I did not 

 interfere in the least with himj and, in return, I was to allow him 

 to stand in halt the winnings of the next year. To this I agreed. 



