A Duffer. 225 



be too venturesome with the horses in my forthcoming 

 classes, and told him that when they ' came off,' I would 

 allow him only to hand me the gear which I required, so 

 that he might have every advantage in observing the manner 

 in which I ' went about ' difficult horses. One day while 

 holding my class at Port Elizabeth, I explained the wrong 

 and the right way of lifting up a horse's hind leg, and to 

 give Dalston some encouragement, I granted him, as I 

 considered, the great favour of showing the assembled 

 gentlemen how an expert would ' pick up ' the near hind 

 leg of a vicious mule which stood in the centre of the ring, 

 as a subject for experiment. Dalston apparently miscon- 

 struing my meaning, acted to perfection the part of the 

 typical novice, for the enlightenment of whose ignorance 

 I had come to South Africa — so I had declared in lecture 

 and on hand-bill. The mule did not enter into the joke ; 

 for the moment he put his hand on her fetlock (instead of 

 on her hamstring, as he ought to have done), she ' let fly ' 

 and knocked him down with admirable precision. To turn 

 the mishap to good account, I ran forward, gathered up 

 Dalston under one arm, and sawed the air with the other, 

 while I explained that although I had always advised my 

 assistant to observe the principle of point de zcle y his youthful 

 enthusiasm had outrun his prudence and that, wishing to 

 demonstrate the wrong method of lifting up a mule's hind leg, 

 he had played his part in too realistic a manner. I lifted him 

 on his feet, whispered an encouraging word or two, looked 

 imploringly at him to see if I dared tell the gentlemen 

 present that he would now show them the right way of 

 picking up the mule's hind leg ; but as I saw the poor fellow 

 was in a state of abject fear, I did the job myself, and 

 passed off the mishap as best J could. When the class was 

 over for that day and while we were returning to our hotel, 

 I explained to Dalston what a chance he had missed in 

 not turning the accident to good account as any true show- 

 man would have done. He replied that he was not a show- 



