44 THE BEST SEASON" ON RECORD. 



selves penned up in confusion and sliame. Not all. For 

 youth and blood were again fortliconiing to serve tliem — 

 and found its cliance where any ordinary jury of hard 

 riders would have promptly declared that none was 

 possible. A tree had been cut away ; and according to 

 the custom which creates all the timbered embrasures in 

 the fences of the country, its place had been taken by 

 three stoat rails. Lapse of time had brought the boughs 

 of the bullfinch almost together overhead — added to 

 which, there was a wide ditch on the nearside, and the 

 approach was discouragingly ui^hill. A ^'' certainfTj ! '' was 

 the united if unuttered verdict. But a " certainty " is 

 attached to the leadership of a forlorn hope — and many 

 a man has come out of even that venture unscathed. 

 The two forms of hazardous venture are dissimilar only 

 in degree — the lesser to the great. But the same spirit 

 prompts, tlie same material makes up, the man who, not 

 in ignorance or inexperience but in jovial recklessness, is 

 ready, as he would term it, to " have a shy " — while you 

 and I curl up and look askance, as if we saw neither the 

 opportunity nor each other. Well, the sturdy brown 

 horse jumped as high as he could, and as far as he could ; 

 the top rail broke under his girths — his head held him 

 up for a wJiile, his shouhlers helped him to rise again, 

 and he carried his Ijold master safely on — leaving the 

 place almost as unattractive as before. Praised be Allah! 

 Another of the same family was still at hand — somewhat 

 chagrined, perhaps, that the pride of place had been so 

 rudely taken from him by his big brother. But that no 

 want of manners should be imputed to him, or to the 



