A Black Diamond, 53 



the fences at all ; but he was not afraid to go at 

 them, and he fell off constantly. He fell off 

 behind, he fell off in front, he fell off sideways, 

 in fact, he fell off in every way that it was 

 possible for him to accomplish ; at last he 

 seemed to get the better of it all at once, and 

 he kept on until he could ride as well as half 

 the people out, and from laughing at him 

 people began to respect and admire, for that 

 bit of thorough British pluck and determina- 

 tion which overcame his . neglected education 

 in horsemanship. His heart was in the right 

 place, and a real good hard one it was too, so 

 far as jumping went, for when he had once 

 mastered it he never seemed to care how big 

 the places were. 



A vast number of people w^ho go out don't 

 care a fraction about the hounds so long as 

 they go fast enough. I was never one of this 

 sort, for though I was extremely fond of riding, 

 I loved to watch the working of the hounds, 

 and always took great interest even in what is 

 called a woodland day ; in fact, I rode to hunt, 

 and therefore I always preferred a good hunt- 

 ing run of an hour or an hour and a half at 

 a moderate or fair pace, to a twenty minutes 



