THE BAY MARE 107 



father's new guests, and to make the acquaintance of my 

 intended brother-in-law, or to partake of the smoking 

 haunch, I was obliged to lie down. I did not recover 

 till the next day, when the guests were all departed ; and 

 my father was extremely chagrined that I had been put 

 upon so dangerous an animal, which he sent to its owner, 

 with a not very pleasing message, by his groom. When 

 I remonstrated with the owner for so unfriendly an act, 

 seeing that I was quite free from injury he only smiled, 

 though he was not a man as I thouo'ht to feel indifference 

 when human life was in dans-er, and I had been on terms 

 of the greatest intimacy with him. However, he quickly 

 parted with the mare, and I had forgotten her, though 

 not the very serious hazard she had put me to. 



About three years after this I was at Portsdown Fair, 

 where I was in the habit of meeting persons in the same 

 business as myself. One of them, a particular friend from 

 Southampton, and a most excellent judge of a horse, saw 

 me in the act of purchasing a nice little bay mare. He 

 walked away while I mounted her with the intention of 

 ridino; her home. Turning' her head in that direction, 

 she set off at full gallop down the hill, kicking and plung- 

 ing all the way, but getting safe into the village at the 

 foot of the hill. I dismounted, and, upon a little further 

 examination, recognized the identical animal that had 

 before endangered my life. I had now become a man-ied 

 man ; and being likely to have further claims upon me, 

 did not choose to court danger ; I therefore sent her 

 home, and returned in a hired conveyance, not saying a 

 word of what had happened. 



In the morning a^note arrived, bearing the Southampton 



