u 



METAPHYSICS OF BEAK HrXTES'S. .353 



attention to the guide's reiterated '■ Xo ! 7U> .' por Lio)!" 

 wten he suddenly threw out his heels in such devilish earnest 

 that they clattered together just ahove my forehead, and 

 reminded me that "prudence was the better part," &c., 

 far as he ■n"a= concerned, yet awhile. I turned off with a 

 feeling of high indignation at this ungrateful reception of 

 my kindly intentions, and consigned him over to the tender 

 mercies of the Mexican, with the petulant and unnecessary 

 injunction, to '■kiU him, or ride that devil out of himl" I 

 have some times since thought that the horse must have 

 understood this cruel speech, and to have hided his time to 

 avenge himself right royally — and he did it, too. as you wiU 

 presently see I 



Our westward march was now resumed. TTe soon recovered 

 that careless buoyancy which had somewhat been checked by 

 the unpromising "first night." The scenery was glorioii=, 

 the air deliciously fresh and bracing, the Doctor and his 

 pony irresistibly comic ; and the grouse was soon startled, 

 whirring up from its grassy conch by the joyous bursts of 

 tameless merriment. That same Doctor, and his better part, 

 on four legs, were enough to have kept an army in a roar. I 

 say better part, for the pony was as self-opinionated as he 

 was cross-grained, and scarcely an hour passed that he and 

 his rider had not some mistmderstanding to settle, in the 

 final adjustment of which "bobtail" generally managed to 

 get the best of it. On the slightest matter of offence being 

 given, the irrascible little wretch would stop and bite at the 

 Doctor's short legs ; when he, of course, jerking them back 

 suddenly to avoid snaps, his armed heels would prick the 

 pony's flank, who would spring forward with several quick 

 successive leaps, which would sadly discommode his rider's 

 equilibrium, and, not unfrequently, would keep them up with 

 such rapidity, that the tight, roimd personalities of the 

 Doctor, after a flying ascension over his head, would plump 

 into the grass ; but as that happened to be very thick, and 



