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diff --git a/10539-h/10539-h.htm b/10539-h/10539-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e3759d4 --- /dev/null +++ b/10539-h/10539-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,3806 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII"> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of In the Riding-School; Chats With Esmeralda, by Theo. Stephenson Browne</title> +<style type="text/css"> + body {background:#FFFFF0; + color:black; + font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; + font-size:14pt; + margin-top:100; + margin-left:10%; + margin-right:10%; + text-align:justify} + table {font-size:14pt; + valign: "top";} + p {text-indent: 4% } + a:link {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + link {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + a:visited {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + a:hover {color:red} + pre {font-size:10pt;} +</style> +</head> +<body> +<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, In the Riding-School; Chats With Esmeralda, +by Theo. Stephenson Browne</h1> +<pre> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a> + +Title: In the Riding-School; Chats With Esmeralda + +Author: Theo. Stephenson Browne + +Release Date: December 28, 2003 [eBook #10539] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: US-ASCII + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN THE RIDING-SCHOOL; CHATS WITH ESMERALDA*** + +</pre> + +<center><h3>Transcribed by Elizabeth Durack,<br> + who is very pleased to be able to share this rare and charming book.</h3></center> + +<br> +<hr> + +<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"> </p> + +<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><font size="6"><b +style="mso-bidi-font-weight: +normal"><span style="font-size:20.0pt">In the Riding-School</span></b></font></p> + +<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><font size="4"><b +style="mso-bidi-font-weight: +normal"><span style="font-size:20.0pt">Chats with Esmeralda</span></b></font></p> + +<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><b +style="mso-bidi-font-weight: +normal"><span style="font-size:20.0pt"> </span></b></p> + +<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span +style="font-size:16.0pt">by Theo. Stephenson Browne</span></p> +<center> +1890 +</center> +<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span +style="font-size:16.0pt"> </span></p> + +<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center">—We two will ride,<br> +<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Lady mine,<br> +<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>At your pleasure, side by side,<br> +<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Laugh and chat.<br> +<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>ALDRICH</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal"> </p> + +<p class="MsoNormal"> </p> + +<p class="MsoNormal"> </p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">TO THE MODERN MEN OF UZ; MY FRENCH, ENGLISH, AND AMERICAN MASTERS.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal"> </p> + +<p class="MsoNormal"> </p> + + + + +<br> +<br> +<center> +<h3>CONTENTS</h3> +</center> +<br> +<br> +<table> +<tr><td align="right" valign="top">I. </td> <td><a href="#1" >A PRELIMINARY CHAT WITH ESMERALDA. The proper frame of mind—Dress—Preparatory exercises.</a></td> +<tr><td align="right" valign="top">II. </td> <td><a href="#2" >SHALL YOU TAKE YOUR MOTHER, ESMERALDA? The first lesson—Various ways of mounting—Slippery reins—Clucking—After a ride.</a></td> +<tr><td align="right" valign="top">III. </td> <td><a href="#3" >CHAT DURING THE SECOND LESSON. Equestrian language—Trotting without a horse—Exercises in and out of the saddle.</a></td> +<tr><td align="right" valign="top">IV. </td> <td><a href="#4" >ESMERALDA'S TRIALS AT THE THIRD LESSON. Pounding the saddle—A critical spectator—A few rein-holds.</a></td> +<tr><td align="right" valign="top">V. </td> <td><a href="#5" >ESMERALDA ON THE ROAD. Good and bad and indifferent riders—A very little runaway.</a></td> +<tr><td align="right" valign="top">VI. </td> <td><a href="#6" >THE ORDEAL OF A PRIVATE LESSON. Voltes and half voltes—"On the right hand of the school"—Imagination as a teacher.</a></td> +<tr><td align="right" valign="top">VII. </td> <td><a href="#7" >ESMERALDA AT A MUSIC RIDE. Sitting like a poker—The ways of the bad rider.</a></td> +<tr><td align="right" valign="top">VIII. </td> <td><a href="#8" >ESMERALDA IN CLASS. Keeping distances—Corners—Proper place in the saddle—Exercises to correct nervous stiffness.</a></td> +<tr><td align="right" valign="top">IX. </td> <td><a href="#9" >ELEMENTARY MILITARY EVOLUTIONS. "Forward, forward, and again forward!"—How to guide a horse easily.</a></td> +<tr><td align="right" valign="top">X. </td> <td><a href="#10">CHAT DURING AN EXERCISE RIDE. The deeds of the three-legged trotter—The omniscient rider—Backing a step or two—Fun in the dressing-room.</a></td> +<tr><td align="right" valign="top">XI. </td> <td><a href="#11">ESMERALDA IS MANAGED. Intervals—The secret of learning to ride.</a></td> +<tr><td align="right" valign="top">XII. </td> <td><a href="#12">CHAT ABOUT THE HABIT. Riding-dress in history and fiction—Cloth, linings and sewing—Boots, gloves, and hats.</a></td> +<tr><td align="right" valign="top">XIII. </td> <td><a href="#13">CHAT ABOUT TEACHERS. Foreign and native instructors—Why American women learn slowly—"Keep riding!"</a></td> +</table> + +<p class="MsoNormal"> </p> + +<p class="MsoNormal"> </p> +<a name="1"></a> +<br> +<br> +<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">I.</b></p> + +<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Impatient to mount +and ride.<br> +<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span><i +style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Longfellow.</i></p> + +<p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"> </i></p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">And you want to learn how to ride, Esmeralda?</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Why? Because? Reason good and sufficient, Esmeralda; to require +anything more definite would be brutal, although an explanation of your motives would +render the task of directing you much easier.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">As you are an American, it is reasonable to presume that you desire +to learn quickly; as you are youthful, it is certain that you earnestly wish to look +pretty in the saddle, and as you are a youthful American, there is not a shadow of a doubt +that your objections to authoritative teaching will be almost unconquerable, and that you +will insist upon being treated, from the very beginning, as if your small head contained +the knowledge of a Hiram Woodruff or of an Archer. Perhaps you may find a teacher who will +comply with your wishes; who will be exceedingly deferential to your little whims; will +unhesitatingly accept your report of your own sensations and your hypotheses as to their +cause; and, Esmeralda, when once your eyes behold that model man, be content, and go and +take lessons of another, for either he is a pretentious humbug, careless of everything +except his fees, or he is an ignoramus.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">It may not be necessary that you should be insulted or ridiculed in +order to become a rider, although there are girls who seem utterly impervious by teaching +by gentle methods. Is it not a matter of tradition that Queen Victoria owes her regal +carriage to the rough drill-sergeant who, with no effect upon his pupil, horrified her +governess, and astonished her, by sharply saying: "A pretty Queen you'll make with +that dot-and-go-one gait!" Up went the little chin, back went the shoulders, down +went the elbows, and, in her wrath, the little princess did precisely what the old soldier +had been striving to make her do; but his delighted cry of "Just right!" was a +surprise to her, inasmuch as she had been conscious of no muscular effort whatsoever. From +that time forth, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">incessit </i><i +style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">regina</i>.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">You may not need such rough treatment, but it is necessary that you +should be corrected every moment and almost every second until you learn to correct +yourself, until every muscle in your body becomes self-conscious, and until an improper +position is almost instantly felt as uncomfortable, and the teacher who does not drill you +steadily and continuously, permits you to fall into bad habits.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">If you were a German princess, Esmeralda, you would be compelled to +sit in the saddle for many an hour without touching the reins, while your patient horse +walked around a tan bark ring, and you balanced yourself and straightened yourself, and +adjusted arms, shoulders, waist, knees and feet, under the orders of a drill-sergeant, who +might, indeed, sugar-coat his phrases with "Your Highness," but whose +intonations would say "You must," as plainly as if he were drilling an awkward +squad of peasant recruits. If you were the daughter of a hundred earls, you would be +mounted on a Shetland pony and shaken into a good seat long before you outgrew short +frocks, and afterwards you would be trained by your mother or older sisters, by the +gentlemen of your family, or perhaps, by some trusted old groom, or in a good London +riding-school, and, no matter who your instructor might be, you would be compelled to be +submissive and obedient.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">But you object that you cannot afford to pay for very careful, +minute, and long-continued training; that you must content yourself with such teaching as +you can obtain by riding in a ring under the charge of two or three masters, receiving +such instruction as they find time to give you while maintaining order and looking after +an indefinite number of other pupils. Your real teacher in that case must be yourself, +striving assiduously to obey every order given to you, no matter whether it appears +unreasonable or seems, as the Concord young woman said, "in accordance with the +latest scientific developments and the esoteric meaning of differentiated animal +existences." That sentence, by the way, silenced her master, and nearly caused him to +have a fit of illness from suppression of language, but perhaps it might affect your +teacher otherwise, and you would better reserve it for that private mental rehearsal of +your first lesson which you will conduct in your maiden meditation.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">You are your own best teacher, you understand, and you may be +encouraged to know that one of the foremost horsemen in the country says: "I have had +many teachers, but my best master was here," touching his forehead. "Where do +you ride, sir?" asked one of his pupils, after vainly striving with reins and whip, +knee, heel and spur to execute a movement which the master had compelled his horse to +perform while apparently holding himself as rigid as bronze. "I ride here, sir," +was the grim answer, with another tap on the forehead.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">And first, Esmeralda, being feminine, you wish to know what you are +to wear.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Until you have taken at least ten lessons, it would be simply +foolishness for you to buy any special thing to wear, except a plain flannel skirt, the +material for which should not cost you more than two dollars and a half. Harper's Bazar +has published two or three patterns, following which any dressmaker can make a skirt quite +good enough for the ring. A jersey, a Norfolk jacket, a simple street jacket or even an +ordinary basque waist; any small, close-fitting hat, securely pinned to your hair, and +very loose gloves will complete a dress quite suitable for private lessons, and not so +expensive that you need grudge the swift destruction certain to come to all equestrian +costumes. Nothing is more ludicrous than to see a rider clothed in a correct habit, +properly scant and unhemmed, to avoid all risks when taking fences and hedges in a hunting +country, with her chimney-pot hat and her own gold-mounted crop, her knowing little +riding-boots and buckskins, with outfit enough for Baby Blake and Di Vernon and Lady Gay +Spanker, and to see that young woman dancing in the saddle, now here and now there, +pulling at the reins in a manner to make a rocking-horse rear, and squealing tearfully and +jerkily: "Oh, ho-ho-oh, wh-h-hat m-m-makes h-h-him g-g-go s-s-s-so?"</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">If you think it possible that you may be easily discouraged, and that +your first appearance in the riding-school will be your last, you need not buy any skirt, +for you will find several in the school dressing-room, and, for once, you may submit to +wearing a garment not your own. Shall you buy trousers or tights? Wait till you decide to +take lessons before buying either, first to avoid unnecessary expense, and second, because +until experience shall show what kind of a horsewoman you are likely to be, you cannot +tell which will be the more suitable and comfortable. Laced boots, a plain, dark +underskirt, cut princess, undergarments without a wrinkle, and no tight bands to compress +veins, or to restrain muscles by adding their resistance to the force of gravitation make +up the list of details to which you must give your attention before leaving home. If you +be addicted to light gymnastics you will find it beneficial to practise a few movements +daily, both before taking your first lesson and as long as you may continue to ride.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">First—Hold your shoulders square and perfectly rigid, and turn the +head towards the right four times, and then to the left four times.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Second—Bend the head four times to the right and four times to the +left.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Third—Bend the head four times to the back and four times to the +front. These exercises will enable you to look at anything which may interest you, without +distracting the attention of your horse, as you might do if you moved your shoulders, and +thus disturbed your equilibrium on your back. Feeling the change, he naturally supposes +that you want something of him, and when you become as sensitive as you should be, you +will notice that at such times he changes his gait perceptibly.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Fourth—Bend from the waist four times to the right, four to the +left, four times forward, and four times backward. These movements will not only make the +waist more flexible, but will strengthen certain muscles of the leg.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Fifth—Execute any movement which experience has shown you will +square your shoulders and flatten your back most effectually. Throw the hands backward +until they touch one another, or bring your elbows together behind you, if you can. Hold +the arms close to the side, the elbows against the waist, the forearm at right angles with +the arm, the fists clenched, with the little finger down and the knuckles facing each +other, and describe ellipses, first with one shoulder, then with the other, then with +both. This movement is found in Mason's School Gymnastics, and is prescribed by M. de +Bussigny in his little manual for horsewomen, and it will prove admirable in its effects. +Stretch the arms at full length above the head, the palms of the hands at front, the +thumbs touching one another, and then carry them straight outward without bending the +elbows, and bend them down, the palms still in front, until the little finger touches the +leg. This movement is recommended by Mason and also by Blaikie, and as it is part of the West +Point "setting up" drill, it may be regarded as considered on good authority to +be efficacious in producing an erect carriage. Stand as upright as you can, your arms +against your side, the forearm at right angles, as before, and jerk your elbows downward +four times.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Sixth—Sit down on the floor with your feet stretched straight +before you, and resting on their heels, and drop backward until you are lying flat, then +resume your first position, keeping your arms and forearms at right angles during the +whole exercise. Still sitting, bend as far to the right as you can, then bend as far as +possible to the left, resuming a perfectly erect position between the movements, and +keeping your feet and legs still. Rising, stand on your toes and let yourself down fifty +times; then stand on your heels, and raise and lower your toes fifty times. The firmer you +hold your arms and hands during these movements, the better for you, Esmeralda, and for +the horse who will be your first victim.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Already one can seem to see him, poor, innocent beast, miserable in +the memories of an army of beginners, his mouth so accustomed to being jerked in every +direction, without anything in particular being meant by it, that neither Arabia nor +Mexico can furnish a bit which would surprise him, or startle his four legs from their +propriety. No cow is more placid, no lamb more gentle; he would not harm a tsetse fly or +kick a snapping terrier. His sole object in life is to keep himself and his rider out of +danger, and to betake himself to that part of the ring in which the least labor should be +expected of him. The tiny girls who ride him call him "dear old Billy Buttons," +or "darling Gypsy," or "nice Sir Archer." Heaven knows what he calls +them in his heart! Were he human, it would be something to be expressed by dashes and +"d's"; but, being a horse, he is silent, and shows his feelings principally by +heading for the mounting-stand whenever he thinks that a pupil's hour is at an end.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Why that long face, Esmeralda? Must you do all those exercises? Bless +your innocent soul, no! Dress yourself and run away. The exercises will be good for you, +but they are not absolutely necessary. Remember, however, that your best riding-school +master is behind your own pretty forehead, and that your brain can save your muscles many +a strain and many a pound of labor. And remember, too, that, in riding, as in everything +else, to him that hath shall be given, and the harder and firmer your muscles when you +begin, the greater will be the benefit which you will derive from your rides, and the more +you will enjoy them. The pale and weary invalid may gain flesh and color with every +lesson, but the bright and healthy pupil, whose muscles are like iron, whose heart and +lungs are in perfect order, can ride for hours without weariness, and double her strength +in a comparatively short time.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">But—Esmeralda, dear, before you go—whisper! Why do you want to +take riding lessons? Theodore asked you to go out with him next Monday, and Nell said that +she would lend you her habit, and you thought that you would take three lessons and learn +to ride? There, go and dress, child; go and dress!</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal"> </p> +<a name="2"></a> +<br> +<br> +<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">II.</b></p> + +<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Bring forth the horse!<br> +<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span><i +style="mso-bidi-font-style: +normal">Byron.</i></p> + +<p class="MsoNormal"> </p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Being ready to start, Esmeralda, the question now arises: "Is a +riding school," as the girl asked about the new French play, "a place to which +one can take her mother?" Little girls too young to dress themselves should be +attended by their mothers or by their maids, but an older girl no more needs guardianship +at riding-school than at any other place at which she receives instruction, and there is +no more reason why her mother should follow her into the ring than into the class-room.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Her presence, even if she preserve absolute silence, will probably +embarrass both teacher and pupil, and although her own children may not be affected by it, +it will be decidedly troublesome to the children of other mothers.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">If, instead of being quiet, she talk, and it is the nature of the +mother who accompanies her daughter to riding-school to talk volubly and loudly, she will +become a nuisance, and even a source of actual danger, by distracting the attention of the +master from his pupils, and the attention of the pupils from their horses, to say nothing +of the possibility that some of her pretty, ladylike screams of, "Oh, darling, I know +you're tired!" or, "Oh, what a horrid horse; see him jump!" may really +frighten some lucky animal whose acquaintance has included no women but the sensible.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">If she be inclined to laugh at the awkward beginners, and to ridicule +them audibly—but really, Esmeralda, it should not be necessary to consider such an +action, impossible in a well-bred woman, unlikely in a woman of good feeling! Leave your +mother, if not at home, in the dressing-room or the reception room, and go to the +mounting-stand alone.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">In some schools you may ride at any time, but the usual morning hours +for ladies' lessons are from nine o'clock to noon, and the afternoon hours from two +o'clock until four. Some masters prefer that their pupils should have fixed days and hours +for their lessons, and others allow the very largest liberty. For your own sake it is +better to have a regular time for your lessons, but if you cannot manage to do so, do not +complain if you sometimes have to wait a few minutes for your horse, or for your master.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">The school is not carried on entirely for your benefit, although you +will at first assume that it is. As a rule, a single lesson will cost two dollars, but a +ten-lesson ticket will cost but fifteen dollars, a twenty-lesson ticket twenty-five +dollars, and a ticket for twenty exercise rides twenty dollars. In schools which give +music-rides, there are special rates for the evenings upon which they take place, but you +need not think of music-rides until you have had at least the three lessons which you +desire.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Buy your ticket before you go to the dressing-room, and ask if you +may have a key to a locker. Dress as quickly as you can, and if there be no maid in the +dressing-room, lock up your street clothing and keep your key. If there be a maid, she +will attend to this matter, and will assist you in putting on your skirt, showing you that +it buttons on the left side, and that you must pin it down the basque of your jersey or +your jacket in the back, unless you desire it to wave wildly with every leap of your +horse. Flatter not yourself that lead weights will prevent this! When a horse begins a +canter that sends you, if your feelings be any gauge, eighteen good inches nearer the +ceiling, do you think that an ounce of lead will remain stationary? give a final touch to +your hairpins and hatpins, button your gloves, pull the rubber straps of your habit over +your right toe and left heel, and you are ready.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">In most schools, you will be made to mount from the ground, and you +will find it surprisingly and delightfully easy to you. What it may be to the master who +puts you into the saddle is another matter, but nine out of ten teachers will make no +complaint, and will assure you that they do very well.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">If you wish to deceive any other girl's inconsiderate mother whom you +may find comfortably seated in a good position for criticism, and to make her suppose that +you are an old rider, keep silence. Do not criticise your horse or his equipments, do not +profess inability to mount, but when you master says "Now!" step forward and +stand facing in the same direction of your horse, placing your right hand on the upper +pommel of the two on the left of the saddle.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Set your left foot in whichever hand he holds out for it. Some +masters offer the left, some the right, and some count for a pupil, and others prefer that +she should count for yourself. The usual "One, two, three!" means, one, rest the +weight strongly on the right foot; two, bend the right knee, keeping the body perfectly +erect; three, spring up from the right foot, turning very slightly to the left, so as to +place yourself sideways on the saddle, your right hand toward the horse's head.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Some masters offer a shoulder as a support for a pupil's left hand, +and some face toward the horse's head and some toward his tail, so it is best for you to +wait a little for directions, Esmeralda, and not to suppose that, because you know all +about Lucy Fountain's way of mounting a horse, or about James Burdock's tuition of Mabel +Vane, there is no other method of putting a lady in the saddle.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">After your first lesson, you will find it well to practise springing +upward from the right foot, holding your left on a hassock, or a chair rung, your right +hand raised as if grasping the pommel, your shoulders carefully kept back, and your body +straight. It is best to perform this exercise before a mirror, and when you begin to think +you have mastered it, close you eyes, give ten upward springs and then look at yourself. A +hopeless wreck, eh? Not quite so bad as that, but, before, you unconsciously corrected +your position by the eye, and you must learn to do it entirely by feeling. You will +probably improve very much on a second trial, because your shoulders will begin to be +sensitive. Why not practise this exercise before your first lesson? Because you should +know just how your master prefers to stand, in order to be able to imagine him standing as +he really will. It is not unusual to see riders of some experience puzzled and made +awkward by an innovation on what they have regarded as the true and only method of +mounting, although, when once the right leg and wrist are properly trained, a woman ought +to be able to reach the saddle without caring what her escort's method of assistance.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Mounting from a high horseblock is a matter of being fairly lifted +into the saddle, and you cannot possibly do it improperly. it is easy, but it gives you no +training for rides outside the school, and masters use it, not because they approve of it, +but because their pupils, not knowing how easy it is to mount from the ground, often +desire it.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">But, being in the saddle, turn so as to face your horse's head, put +our right knee over the pommel, and slip your left foot into the stirrup. Then rise on +your left foot and smooth your skirt, a task in which your master will assist you, and +take you reins and your whip from him.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">How shall you hold your reins? As your master tells you! Probably, he +will give you but one rein at first, and very likely will direct you to hold it in both +hands, keeping them five or six inches apart, the wrists on a level with the elbows or +even a very little lower, and he is not likely to insist on any other details, knowing +that it will be difficult for you to attain perfection in these. An English master might +give you a single rein to be passed outside the little finger, and between the forefinger +and the middle finger, the loop coming between the forefinger and thumb, and being held in +place by the thumb. Then he would expect you to keep your right shoulder back very firmly, +but a French master will tell you that it is better to learn to keep the shoulder back a +little while holding a rein in the right hand, and an American master will usually allow +you to take your choice, but, until you have experience, obey orders in silence.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">And now, having taken your whip, draw yourself back in your saddle so +as to feel the pommel under your right knee; sit well towards the right, square your +shoulders, force your elbows well down, hollow your waist a little, and start. He won't +go? Of course he will not, until bidden to do so, if he know his business. Bend forward +the least bit in the world, draw very slightly on the reins, and rather harder on the +right, so as to turn him from the stand, and away he walks, and you are in the ring. You +had no idea that it was so large, and you feel as if lost on a western prairie, but you +are in no danger whatsoever. You cannot fall off while your right knee and left foot are +in place, and if you deliberately threw yourself into the tan, you would be unhurt, and +the riding-school horse knows better than to tread on anything unusual which he may find +in his way.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Now, Esmeralda, keep your mind—No, your saddle is not turning; it +is well girthed. You feel as if it were? Pray, how do you know how you would feel if a +saddle were to turn? Did you ever try it? And your saddle is not too large! Neither is it +too small! And there is nothing at all the matter with your horse! Now, Esmeralda, keep +your mind—No, that other girl is not going to ride you down. Her horse would not allow +her, if she endeavored to do so. The trouble is that she does not guide her horse, but is +worrying herself about staying on his back, when she should be thinking about making him +turn sharp corners and go straight forward. Regard her as a warning, Esmeralda, and keep +your mind—What is the matter with the reins? Apparently they are oiled, for they have +slipped from under your thumbs, and your horse is wandering along with drooping head, +looking as if training to play the part of the dead warrior's charger at a military +funeral.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Shorten your reins now, carefully! Not quite so much, or your horse +will think that you intend to begin to trot, and do not lean backward, or he will fancy +that you wish him to back or stop. The poor thing has to guess at what a pupil wishes, and +no wonder that he sometimes mistakes.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">But, Esmeralda, keep your mind on those thumbs and hold them close to +your forefingers. Driving will give no idea of the slipperiness of leather, but after your +first riding lesson you will wonder why it is not used to floor roller-skating rinks. But +remember that your reins are for your horse's support, not for yours; they are the +telegraph wires along which you send dispatches to him, not parallel bars upon which your +weight is to depend. Hitherto, you have not ridden an inch. Your horse has strolled about, +and you have not dropped from his back, and that is not riding, but now you shall begin.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">In a large ring, pupils are required to keep to the wall when +walking, as this gives the horse a certain guide, but in small rings the rule is to keep +to the wall when trotting, so as to improve every foot of pace, and to walk about six feet +from the wall, not in a circle, but describing a rectangle. New pupils are always taught +to turn to the right, and to make all their movements in that direction. Hold your thumbs +firmly in place, and draw your right hand a very little upward and inward, touching your +whip lightly to the horse's right side, and turning your face and leaning your body +slightly to the right.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">The instant that the corner is turned, drop your hand, keeping the +thumb in place, square your shoulders, look straight between your horse's ears, and then +allow your eyes to range upward as far as possible without losing sight of him altogether. +No matter what is going on about you. Very likely, the criticizing mamma on the +mounting-stand is scolding sharply about noting. Possibly, a dear little boy is fairly +flying about the ring on a pony that seems to have cantered out of a fairy tale, and a +marvelously graceful girl, whom you envy with your whole soul, is doing pirouettes in the +centre of the ring.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">All that is not your business. Your sole concern is to keep your body +in position, and your mind fixed on making your horse obey you, doing nothing of his own +will. Stop him now and then by leaning back, and drawing on the reins, not with your body +but with your hands. Then lean forward and go on, but if he should remain planted as fast +as the Great Pyramid, if when started he should refuse to pay any attention to the little +taps of your left heel and the touches of your whip, nay, if he should lie down and +pretend to die, like a trick horse in a circus, don't cluck. No good riding master will +teach a pupil to cluck or will permit the practice to pass unreproved, and riding-school +horses do not understand it, and are quite as likely to start at the cluck of a rider on +the other side of the ring as they are when a similar noise is made by the person on their +own backs.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">But now, just as you have shortened your reins for the fortieth time +or so, your master rides up beside you. You told him of your little three-lesson plan, and +being wise in his generation, he smilingly assented to it. "Shall we trot?" he +asks, in an agreeable voice. "Shorten your reins, now! Don't pull on them! Right +shoulder back! Now rise from the saddle as I count, 'One, two, three, four!' Off we +go!'" You would like to know what he meant by "off!" "Off," +indeed! You thought you were "off" the saddle. You have been bounced up and down +mercilessly, and have gasped, "Stop him!" before you have been twice around the +ring, and not one corner have you been able to turn properly. As for your elbows, you know +that they have been flying all abroad, but still—it was fun, and you would like to try +again. You do try again, and you would like to try again. You do try again, and, at last, +you are conscious of a sudden feeling of elasticity, of sympathy with your horse, of +rising when he does, and then your master looks at you triumphantly, and says: "You +rose that time," and leaves you to go to some other pupil. And then you walk your +horse again, trying to keep in position, and you make furtive little essays at trotting by +yourself, and find that you cannot keep your horse to the wall, although you pull your +hardest at his left rein, the reason being that, unconsciously, you also pull at the right +rein, and that he calmly obeys what the reins tell him and goes straight forward. Then +your master offers to help you by lifting you, grasping your right arm with his left hand, +and you make one or two more circuits of the ring, and then the hour is over and you +dismount and go to the dressing-room.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Tired, Esmeralda? A little, and you do wonder whether you shall not +be a bruised piece of humanity to-morrow. Not if your flesh be as hard as any girl's +should be in these days of gymnasiums, but if you have managed to bruise a muscle or to +strain one, lay a bottle of hot water against it when you go to bed and it will not be +painful in the morning. If, in spite of warnings, you have been so careless about your +underclothing as to cause a blister, a bit of muslin saturated with Vaseline, with a drop +of tincture of benzoin rubbed into it, makes a plaster which will end the smart instantly. +</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">This is not a physician's prescription, but is hat of a horseman who +for years led the best riding class in Boston, and it is asserted that nobody was ever +known to be dissatisfied with its effects. Muffle yourself warmly, Esmeralda, and hasten +home, for nothing is easier than to catch cold after riding. Air your frock and cloak +before an open fire to volatilize the slight ammoniacal scent which they must inevitably +contract in the locker, and then be as good to yourself as the hostler will be to your +poor horse. That is to say, give yourself a sponge bath in hot water, with a dash of +Sarg's soap and almond meal in it, rubbing dry with a Turkish towel, and then dress and go +down to dinner.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Looking at your glowing face and shining eyes, your father will tell +your mother that she should have gone also, but when he marks the havoc which you make +with the substantial part of the meal, and sees that your appetite for dessert is twice as +good as usual, he will reflect upon his butcher's and grocer's bills, and, considering +what they would be with provision to make for two such voracious creatures, he will say, +"No, Esmeralda, don't take your mother!"</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal"> </p> +<a name="3"></a> +<br> +<br> +<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">III.</b></p> + +<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Up into the saddle,<br> +<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Lithe and light, vaulting she perched.<br> +<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span><i +style="mso-bidi-font-style: +normal">Hayne.</i></p> + +<p class="MsoNormal"> </p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">And you still think, Esmeralda, that three lessons will be enough to +make you a horse woman, and that by next Monday you will be able to join the road party, +and witch the world with your accomplishments?</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Very well, array yourself for conquest and come to the school. Talk +is cheap, according to a proverb more common than elegant; but it is sinful to waste the +cheapest of things. While you dress, you will meditate upon the sensation which it is your +intention to make in the ring, and upon the humiliation which you will heap upon your +riding master by showing wonderful ability to rise in the saddle. Although not quite ready +to assert ability to ride hour after hour like a mounted policeman, you feel certain that +you could ride as gracefully as he, and perhaps you are right, for official position does +not confer wisdom in equitation. To say nothing of policemen, it is not many seasons since +an ambitious member of the governor's staff presented himself before a riding master to +"take a lesson, just to get used to it, you know; got to review some regiments at +Framingham tomorrow." And when, after some trouble, he had been landed in the saddle, +never a strap had he, and long before his lesson hour was finished, he was a spectacle to +make a Prussian sentinel giggle while on duty.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">And for your further encouragement, Esmeralda, know that it is but a +few years ago that a riding master, in answer to a rebellious pupil who defended some sin +against Baucher with, "Mr. –––– of the governor's staff always does so," retorted, +"There is just one man on the governor's staff who can ride, and I taught him; and if +he had ridden like that !" An awful silence expressed so many painful possibilities +that the pupil was meek and humble ever after, and yet it was not written in any newspaper +that any of those ignorant colonels were thrown from their saddles in public, nor did the +strapless gentleman furnish amusement to civilian or soldier by rolling on the grass at +Framingham.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">The truth is, that the number of persons able to judge of riding is +smaller than the number able to ride, and that number is rather less than one in a hundred +of those who appear on horseback either in the ring or on the road; but Boston could +furnish a legion of men and women who find healthful enjoyment in the saddle, and who look +passably well while doing it, and possibly you may add yourself to their ranks after a +very few lessons, although there is—You are ready? Come then!</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Into the saddle well thought, thanks to your master, but why that +ghastly pause? Turn instantly, place your knee over the pommel and thrust your foot into +the stirrup, if you possibly can, without waiting for assistance. Teachers of experience, +riding masters, dancing masters, musicians, artists, gymnasts, will unite in telling you +that unless a pupil's mental qualities be rather extraordinary, it is more difficult to +impart knowledge at a second lesson than at the first, simply because the pupil gives less +attention, expecting his muscles to work mechanically.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Undoubtedly, after long training, fingers will play scales, and +flying feet whirl their owner about a ballroom without making him conscious of every +muscular extension and contraction, but this facility comes only to those who, in the +beginning, fix an undivided mind upon what they are doing, and who never fall into willful +negligence.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Keep watch of yourself, manage yourself as assiduously as you watch +and manage your horse, and ten times more assiduously than you would watch your fingers at +the piano, or your feet in the dancing class, because you must watch for two, for your +horse and for yourself. If you give him an incorrect signal, he will obey it, you will be +unprepared for his next act, and in half a minute you will have a very pretty +misunderstanding on your hands.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">But there is no reason for being frightened. You cannot fall, and if +your horse should show any signs of actual misbehavior, you would find your master at your +right hand, with fingers of steel to grasp your reins, and a voice accustomed to command +obedience from quadrupeds, howsoever little of it he may be able to obtain at first from +well-meaning bipeds. You are perfectly safe with him, Esmeralda, not only because he knows +how to ride, but because the strongest of all human motives, self-interest, is enlisted to +promote your safety. "She said she was afraid to risk her neck," said an +exhausted teacher, speaking the words of frankness to a spectator, as a timid and stupid +pupil disappeared into the dressing-room, "and I told her that she could afford the +risk better than I. If she broke it, than don't you know, it probably could not be mended, +but mine might be broken in trying to save her, and, at the best, my reputation and my +means of getting a livelihood would be gone forever in an instant. It's only a neck with +her; it's life and wife and babies that I risk, and I'll insure her neck." And when +the stupid pupil, who was a lady in spite of her dulness, came from the dressing-room, +calmed and quieted, and began to offer a blushing apology, he repeated his remarks to her, +and so excellent was the understanding established between them after this little incident +that she actually came to be a tolerable rider. Feeling that he would tell her to do +nothing dangerous to her, she was ready at his command to lie down on her horse's back and +to raise herself again and again, and, after doing this a few times, and bending +alternately to the right and to the left, the saddle seemed quite homelike, and to remain +in it sitting upright was very easy for a few moments.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Only for a few moments, however, for the necessity of paying +attention still remained, as it does with you, and again she stiffened herself, as you are +doing now.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">As Mr. Mead very justly says, in his "Horsemanship for +Women," a lesson may be learned from a bag of grain set up on horseback, which is, +that while the lower part of your body should settle itself almost lazily in place, the +upper part, which is comparatively light, should sway slightly but easily with the horse's +motion.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Manage to ride behind the girl who was teaching herself to do +pirouettes the other day. Her horse is walking rapidly, and you could almost fancy that +her prettily squared shoulders were part of him, so sympathetically do they respond to +each step, but if you should let your horse straggle against hers and frighten him, you +would see that no rock is more firmly seated then she.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">If it should please your master to require you to perform the bending +exercise, you will feel the advantage of having practiced it at home, for it is infinitely +easier in the saddle than it is on the floor, and your riding master will be exceedingly +pleased at the ease with which you effect it. There is no necessity for telling him that +the little feat is quite familiar to you. The woman of sense keeps as many of her doings +secret as she can, and the wise pupil confesses no knowledge except that derived from her +master. Being, in spite of his superior knowledge, a mortal man, he will take twice the +pains with her, and a hundredfold more pride in her if persuaded that she owes everything +to him.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">There is no reason to worry about a little stiffness during the first +lessons. It is almost entirely nervousness, and will disappear as soon as you are quite +comfortable and easy, but the beautiful flexibility of the good horsewoman comes only to +her whose muscles are perfectly trained, and it is surprising how few muscles there are to +which one may not give employment in an hour's practice in the ring. If you like, you may, +without the assistance of your master, lean forward to the right side until your left +shoulder touches your horse's crest, and when you are trotting it is well how and then to +lean forward and to the right until you can see your horse's forefeet, but you would +better not perform the same exercise on the left side for the present, for you might +overbalance yourself and almost slip from the saddle. If able, as you should be, to touch +the floor with your fingertips without bending your knees, this little movement will be +nothing to you, but do <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: +normal">not</i> bend to the left, +Esmeralda. Why not? Why, because if you will have the truth, you are slipping to the left +already, your right shoulder is drooping forward, and your weight is hanging in your +stirrup and pulling your saddle to the left so forcibly that your horse has lost all +respect for you, and would be thoroughly uncomfortable, were it not that you have +forgotten all about your thumbs, and you have allowed your reins to slip away from you, so +that he is going where he pleases, except when you jerk him sharply to the right, and then +he shakes and tosses his head and goes on contentedly, as one saying, "All things +have an end, even a new pupil's hour."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Now, sit well to the right, remembering the meal sack; shorten your +reins, keeping your elbows down and your hands low. Shorten them a very little more, so as +to bring your elbows further forward. When you stop, you should not be compelled to jerk +your elbows back of your waist, but should bring them into line with it, leaning back +slightly, and drawing yourself upward. Stop your horse now, for practice. Do not speak to +him during your first lessons, except by your master's express command, but address him in +his own language, using your reins, your foot, and your whip, if your master permit. +"Why do you make coquette of your horse?" asked a French master of a pretty girl +who was coaxingly calling her mount "a naughty, horrid thing," and casting +glances fit to distract a man on the ungrateful creature's irresponsive crest. "Your +horse does not care anything at all about you; don't you think he does!" pursued he, +ungallantly. "You may coax me as much as you like," said a Yankee teacher to a +young woman who was trying the "treat him kindly" theory, and was calling her +horse a "dear old ducky darling;" "and," he continued, "I'm +rather fond of candy myself, but it isn't coaxing or lump sugar that will make that horse +go. It's brains and reins and foot and whip."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">When you have a horse of your own, talk to him as much as you like, +and teach him your language as an accomplishment, but address the riding-school horse in +his own tongue, until you have mastered it yourself.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Now, adjust yourself carefully, lean forward, extend your hands a +very little, touch your horse with your left heel, and, as soon as he moves, sit erect and +let your hands resume their position. Hasten his steps until he is almost trotting, before +you strike him with the whip. You can do this by very slightly opening and shutting your +fingers in time with the slight pull which he gives with his head at every step, by +touches with your heel, and by touches, not blows, with the whip, and by allowing +yourself, not to rise, but to sit a little lighter with each step. It is not very easy to +do, and you need not be discouraged if you cannot effect it after many trials. Some +masters will tell you to strike your horse on the shoulder, and some will prefer that you +should strike him on the flank as a signal for trotting. Those who prefer the former will +tell you to carry your whip pointing forward; the others will tell you to carry it +pointing backward, and many masters will say that it makes little difference as long as it +is carried gracefully, and as long as you understand that it takes the place of a leg on +the right side of the horse. General Anderson, in "On Horseback," lays down the +rule that a horse should never be struck on the shoulder, as it will cause him to swerve, +but use your master's horses in obedience to his orders.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Now, then, one, two, three, four! One, two, three, four! You don't +seem to be astonishing anybody very much, Esmeralda! Again, one, two, three, four! Never +mind! Sit down and let the horse do the work. Keep your left heel down, and your left knee +close to the saddle. Not close to the pommel, understand, but close to the saddle. Try and +imagine, if you like, that you are carrying a dollar between the knee and the saddle, +after the West Point fashion, and do not fret overmuch because you are not rising. If you +were a cavalryman riding with your troop, you would not be allowed to rise, and to sit +properly while sitting close is an accomplishment not to be despised. "Ow!" What +does that mean? You rose without trying? Watch yourself carefully, and if such a +phenomenon should occur again, try to make it repeat itself by letting yourself down into +the saddle, and then rising again quickly. But keep trotting! Count how many times you +trot around the ring, and mentally pledge yourself to increase the number of circuits at +your next lesson. And—"Cluck!"</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Sit down in the saddle, Esmeralda! Lean back a little, bring your +left knee up against the pommel, keeping the lower part of the leg close against the +saddle; keep your right knee in place and your right foot and the lower part of your right +leg close to the saddled; guide your horse, but do not otherwise exert yourself. How do +you like it? Delightful? Yes, with a good horse it is as delightful as sitting in a +rocking-chair, but, if you were a rider of experience, you would not allow your horse to +enter upon the gait without permission, but would bring him back to the trot by slightly +pulling first the left rein and then the right, a movement which is called sawing the +mouth. The poor creature is really not in fault. He heard the cluck given by that +complacent-looking man, trotting slowly about, and not knowing how to use his reins and +knees in order to go faster, and he said to himself: "She is tired of trotting and +wants a rest; so do I," and away he went. If you had been trying to rise, you might +have been thrown, for the greatest danger that you will encounter in the school comes from +rising while the horse is at a canter. The cadence of the motion is triple, instead of in +common time like that of the trot, and you will soon distinguish the difference, but +eschew cantering at first. If you once become addicted to it, you will never learn to +trot, or even to walk well.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Having had your little warning against clucking, perhaps you will now +sympathize with the indignant Englishwoman who, having been almost unseated by a similar +mischance, responded, when the clucking cause thereof rode up to say that he was sorry +that her horse should behave so: "It wasn't the horse that was in fault, sir; it was +a donkey." But now, try a round or two more of trotting, then guide your horse +carefully about the ring two or three times, bring him up to the mounting-stand, dismount, +and go to the dressing-room. You are rather warm, but not in the least tired, and you have +had "such a good time," as you enthusiastically explain to everybody who will +listen to you, but as there is much merry chatter going on from behind screens, and as it +is all to the same effect, nobody pays much attention, and if you were cross and +complaining, everybody would laugh at you. A riding-school is a place from which every +woman issues better contented than she entered, and there is no sympathy for grumblers.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Remember to be careful about your wraps, and that you may be able to +ride better next time, practice these exercises at home: Place your knees together and +heels together, adjust your shoulders, hands, and arms as if you were in the saddle, and +sit down as far as possible, while keeping the legs vertical from the knee down. Rise, +counting "One," sink again, rise once more at "Two," and continue +through three measures, common time. Rest a minute and repeat until you are a little +weary. Nothing is gained by doing too much work, but if you do just enough of this between +lessons, you cannot possibly grow stiff. When you can do it fairly well, try to do it +first on one foot and then on the other, and then bring your right foot in front of your +left knee, and, standing on your left foot, assume, as nearly as possibly, the proper +position for the saddle, and try to rise in time. You will not find it very difficult, and +you will be compelled to keep your heel down while doing it, especially if you put a block +about an inch thick under your left tow. You may try doing it while sitting sidewise in a +chair, if it be difficult for you to poise yourself on one foot, but a girl who cannot +stand thus for some time, long enough to lace her riding boot, for instance, is much too +weak for her own good.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Take all your spare minutes for this work, Esmeralda. Bob up and down +in all the secluded corners of the house; try to feel the motion in the horse-cars—it +will not need much effort in many of them. And if you want to be comfortable in a herdic, +sit sidewise and pretend that the seat is a horse. This is Mr. Hurlburt's rule for riding +in an Irish "outside car." In short, while taking your first riding-lessons, +walk, sit, and think to the tune of</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>"One, two, three, +four!<br> +<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Near the wall,<br> +<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Make him trot;<br> +<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>You cannot fall!"</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal"> </p> +<a name="4"></a> +<br> +<br> +<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">IV.</b></p> + +<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The Horse does not +attempt to fly;<br> +<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>He knows his powers, and so should I.<br> +<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span><i +style="mso-bidi-font-style: +normal">Spurgeon.</i></p> + +<p class="MsoNormal"> </p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Wilful will to water, eh, Esmeralda? You are determined to appear in +that riding party after your third lesson, and you think that you "will look no worse +than a great many others." Undoubtedly, that is true, and more's the pity, but, since +you will go, let us make the most of the third lesson, and trust that you will return in a +whole piece, like Henry Clay's pie.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">You do not see why there is any more danger on the road than in the +ring, and you have never been thrown! It would be unkind, in the face of that +"never," to remind you that you have been in the saddle precisely twice, and, +really, there is no more danger from your incompetency, should it manifest itself on the +road, than might arise from its display in the ring, but with your horse it is another +matter. Having the whole world before him, why not, he will meditate, speed forth into +space, and escape from the hateful creature who jerks on his head so causelessly, making +him sigh wearily for the days of his unbroken colthood? He would endure it within doors, +because he has noticed that his tormentor gives place to another every hour, and pain may +be borne when it is not monotonous; but he remembers that there is no limit to the time +during which one human being may impel him along an open road, and he also remembers some +very pretty friskings, delightful to himself, but disconcerting to his rider, and he may +perform some of them.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Even if he should, he would not unseat a rider well accustomed to +school work, but you! You actually rose in the saddle three times in succession, the other +day, and where were your elbows and where were your feet when you ceased rising, and long +before your steady, quiet mount understood that you desired him to walk?</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Your master smiles indulgently when you announce that this is your +last practice lesson, and says: "Very well, you shall ride Charlie, to-day, at least +for a little while, until some others come in." He himself mounts, moves off a pace +or two, one of the assistant masters puts you in the saddle, and before the groom lets +Master Charlie's head go, your master says, easily: "Leave his reins pretty long, +especially the right one. Put your left knee close against the pommel; don't try to rise +until I tell you. Ready. Now."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">You feel as if you were in a transformation scene at the theatre. The +windows of the ring seem to run into one another, and at very short intervals you catch a +glimpse in the mirror of a young woman, in a familiar looking Norfolk jacket, sitting with +her elbows as far behind her as if held there by the Austrian plan of running a broomstick +in front of the arms and behind the waist.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">On and on! You earnestly wish to stop, but are ashamed to say so. +Close at your right hand, pace for pace with you, rides your master, keeping up an +unbroken fire of brief ejaculation: "Hands a little lower! Arms close to the +side!" Shoulders square! Square! Draw your right shoulder backward and upward! Now +down with your right elbow! Don't pull o the right rein! Don't lift your hands! You'll +make him go faster!"</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"I like this kind of trot," you say sweetly. "It's +easier than the other kind."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"It isn't a trot; it's a canter," says your master, with a +suspicion of dryness in his voice, "but you may make him trot if you like. Shorten +both reins, especially the left. Whoa, Charlie! Wait until I say 'Now,' before you do it! +Shorten both reins, especially the left; that will keep him to the wall, Then extend your +left arm a little, and draw back your right; draw back your left and extend your right, +and repeat until he comes down to a trot. That saws his mouth, and gives him something +besides scampering to occupy his mind. Now we will start up again at a canter. Lengthen +your reins, but remember to shorten them when you want to trot."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Shall I tell you before hand, so that you may have time to make +your horse trot, too?" you ask.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Esmeralda, you must have been reading one of those sweet books on +etiquette which advise the horsewoman to be considerate of her companions. How much notice +do you think your master requires to "make his horse trot"? You will blush over +the memory of that question next year, although now you feel that you have been very +ladylike, even very Christian, in putting it, for have you not shown that your temper is +unruffled and that you are thinking how to make others happy?</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Your master answers that his horse may be trusted, and that if you +prefer to take your own time to change from the canter to the trot, rather than to wait +for him to say, "Now," you may do so. And the canter begins again, and, after a +round or two, you try the mouth-sawing process, doing it very well, for it is an ugly +little trick at best, rarely found necessary by an accomplished rider, and beginners +seldom fail to succeed in it at the very first attempt. If it were pretty and graceful, it +would be more difficult. Down to the trot comes the obedient Charles, and up you go one, +two, three, four! And down you come, until you really expect to find yourself and the +saddle in the tan between the two halves of your horse.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Of what can the creature's spinal column be made, to bear such a +succession of blows! You begin by pitying the horse, but after about half a circuit, you +think that human beings have their little troubles also, and you feel a suspicion of +sarcasm in your master's gentle: "You need not do French trot any longer, unless you +like. It will be easier for you to rise."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">You give a frantic hop in your stirrup at the wrong minute, and begin +a series of jumps in which you and the horse rise on alternate beats, by which means your +saddle receives twice as much pounding as at first, and then you have breath enough left +to gasp "Stop," and in a second you are walking along quietly, and your master +is saying in a matter-of-fact way: "You would better keep your left heel down all the +time, and turn the toe toward the horse's side and keep your right foot and leg close to +the saddle below the knee; swing yourself up and down as a man does; don't drop like a +lump of lead."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Like a snowflake," you murmur, for you fancy that you have +a pretty wit like Will Honeycomb.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Not at all," says your master. "The snowflake comes +down because it must, and comes to stay. You come because you choose, and come down to +rise again instantly. You must keep your right shoulder back, and your hands on a level +with your elbows, and you must turn the corners, not let your horse turn them as he +pleases—but more pupils are coming now and I must give you another horse. You may have +Billy Buttons." The change is effected, the other pupils begin their lessons, and you +and Billy walk deliberately about in the centre of the ring.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">At first he keeps moderately near the wall, but after a time you find +that the circle described by his footsteps has grown smaller, and that he apparently +fancies himself walking around a rather small tree. Your master rides up as you are +pulling and jerking your left rein in the endeavor to come nearer to the wall, and says, +"Try Billy's canter. I'll take a round with you. Strike him on the shoulder, and when +you want him to trot, shorten your reins and touch him on the flank. Those are the signals +which he minds best. Now! Canter."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">You remember having heard of a "canter like a +rocking-chair." Charlie had it, but you were too inexperienced to know it, but bad +riders long ago deprived Billy of any likeness to a rocking-chair. He knows that if he +should let himself go freely, you would come near to making him rear by pulling on the +reins, and so he goes along<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>"one, two, +three, one, two, three," deliberately, and you feel and look, as you hear an +unsympathetic gazer in the gallery remark, "like a pea in a hot skillet." You +prided yourself on keeping your temper unruffled under the wise criticism of your master, +but in truth you did not really believe him. You said to yourself that he was too +particular, and you even thought of informing him that he must not expect perfection +immediately, but this piece of impudence, spoken by a person who, for aught that you can +tell, does not know Billy from a clotheshorse, convinces you instantly, and you decide to +canter no more, but to trot, and so you "shorten your reins and strike him on the +flank."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">As you shorten the right rein more than the left, and as your whip +falls as lightly as if you meant the blow for yourself, Billy goes to the centre of the +ring, but you jerk him to the wall, and in time, trot he does. But your left foot swings +now forward and now outward, and you cannot rise. The regular, pulsating count by which a +clever girl is moving like a machine, irritates you, and you tell another beginner, +"They really ought to let us rise on alternate bats at first, until we are more +accustomed to the motion," and she agrees with you, and both of you try this, which +might be called trotting on the American pupil plan, but even the calm Billy manages to +take about six steps between what you regard as the "alternate beats," and at +last breaks into a canter, and you hear yourself ordered, very peremptorily, to "sit +down." You obey, but begin the pea in the skillet performance again, and at last you +tell your master that you will not try to trot anymore, but would like to know all about +managing the reins.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"And then," you say, looking as wise as the three +Gothamites of the nursery song, "even if I should not be able to trot long, and +should fall behind my friends on the road, I shall have perfect control of my horse, and +can walk on until they miss me and turn back for me. Will you please tell me all the ways +of holding the reins?"</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Your master does not laugh; the joke is too venerable, and he feels +awe-struck as he hears it, so ancient does it seem.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"If you take your reins in one hand," he says, "an +easy way is to hold the snaffle on your ring finger, and the left curb outside the little +finger, with the right curb between the middle and fore fingers. Then, when you want to +use both hands, put your right little finger and ring finger between the right curb and +right snaffle, and hold your hands at exactly even distances from your horse's head, with +the two reins firmly nipped by the thumbs resting on top of the fore-fingers. This is the +way recommended in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, in Colonel Dodge's 'Patroclus and +Penelope,' and you will see it in many very good hunting pictures.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Colonel Anderson, in his 'On Horseback,' recommends dividing +the curb reins by the little finger of the left hand and the snaffle reins by the middle +finger, carrying the ends up through the hand, and holding them by the thumb. Mr. Mead, in +his 'Horsemanship for Women,' mentions this hold, but prefers taking the curb on the ring +finger, and the snaffle outside the little finger, and between the forefinger and middle +finger. This hold is used in the British army, and it is convenient in school, because if +it be desirable to drop the curb in order to ride with the snaffle only, you can do it by +dropping your ring finger, and, if your horse be moderately quiet, you can knot the curb +rein and let it lie on his neck. Besides, it makes the snaffle a little tighter than the +curb, and that is held to be a good thing in England. An English soldier is prone to +accuse American cavalrymen of riding too much on the curb, and by the way, I have heard +English soldiers assert that they were taught the second method, but it was a riding +master formerly in the Queen's service who told me that the third was preferred.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"M. de Bussigny, in his little 'Handbook for Horsewomen,' gives +the preference to crossing the reins, the curb coming outside the little finger and +between the ring and middle finger, and the snaffle between the little and ring fingers +and the middle finger and forefinger. I hold my won in that way when training a horse, but +it is better for you to use both hands on the reins, and he would tell you so. You are +more likely to sit square; it gives you twice the hold, and then, too, you know where your +right hand is, and are not waving it about in the air, or devising queer ways of holding +your whip. Now your hour is over, and I will take you off your horse. Wait until he is +perfectly still, and the groom has him by the head. Now drop your reins; let me take off +the foot straps; take your foot out of the stirrup; turn in the saddle; put one hand on my +shoulder and one on my elbow, and slip down as lightly as you can."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">You glance at the clock, perceive that you have been I the saddle +almost an hour and a half, and murmur an apology. "Don't mind," is the +encouraging answer. "As long as a pupil does not complain and call us stingy when we +make her dismount, we do not say much. But are you really going on the road, Monday, Miss +Esmeralda?" "Yes, I am," you answer. "Ah, well," he says, a +little regretfully, "don't forget, then. Hold on with your right knee and sit down +for the canter."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">What shall you do by way of exercise before Monday? Practise all the +old movements, a little of each one at a time, and take two lengths of ribbon as wide as +an ordinary rein, or, better still, two leather straps, and fasten one to the knobs on the +two sides of a door and run the other through the keyhole. Call the knob straps the +snaffle reins, and the keyhole straps the curb, and, sitting near enough to let them lie +in your lap, practice picking them up and adjusting them with your eyes shut. When you can +do it quickly and neatly, try and see with how little exertion you can sway the door to +left and right, and then practice holding these dummy reins while standing on one foot and +executing the movement used in trotting. If the door move by a hair's breadth, it will +show you that you are pulling too much, and you must remember that your hold on your +horse's mouth gives you greater leverage than you have on the door, and then, perhaps, you +will pity the poor beast a little now and then.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">What is that? Your master treated you as if you were an ignorant +girl? So you are, dear, and even if you were not, if you knew all that there is in all the +books, you might still be a bad horsewoman, because you might now know enough to use your +knowledge. You don't care, and you feel very well, and are very glad that you went? Of +course, that is the invariable cry! And you mean to take some more lessons if you find +that you really need them? Then leave your skirt in the dressing-room locker! You will +come back from your ride a wiser, but not a sadder, girl. One cannot be sad on horseback.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal"><br style="mso-special-character:line-break"> +<br style="mso-special-character:line-break"> +<a name="5"></a> +<br> +<br> +<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">V.</b></p> + +<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>—Pad, pad, pad! Like a +thing that was mad,<br> +<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>My chestnut broke away.<br> +<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span><i +style="mso-bidi-font-style: +normal">Thornbury</i>.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal"> </p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Esmeralda was puzzled when she returned from her first riding party. +In the morning, looking very pretty in her borrowed riding habit, her English hat with the +hunting guard made necessary by the Back Bay breezes, her brown gauntlets, and the one +scarlet carnation in her button-hole, she drove to the riding-school, where she had agreed +to meet Theodore and her other friends, not like Mrs. Gilpin, lest all should say that she +was proud, but because her master had promised to lend her one of the school horses, to +put her ion the saddle and to adjust her stirrup, and because she secretly felt that she +would better give herself every possible advantage in what, as it came nearer, assumed the +aspect of a trial rather than a pleasure.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Beholding Ronald, the promised horse, severely correct in his road +saddle, and looking immensely tall as he stood on the stable floor, she inly applauded her +own wisdom, strongly doubting that Theodore's unpractised arm would have tossed her into +her place as lightly as the master's, and she was secretly overjoyed when the master +himself mounted and joined the party with her, making its number nine; Esmeralda herself, +the graduate of three lessons; Theodore, all his life accustomed to ride anything calling +itself a horse, but making no pretenses to mastery of the equestrian science; the lawyer, +understood, on his own authority, to be well informed in everything; the society young +lady, erect, precise, self-satisfied; the Texan, riding with apparent laziness, his hands +rather high and seldom quiet, but not to be shaken from his seat; the beauty, languid and +secretly discontented because her horse was "intended for a brunette, and a +ridiculous mount for a blonde"; Versatilia, who had "taken up riding a +little," and the cavalryman, calm, quiet, and fraternally regarded by the master, as +he reviewed the little flock from the back of a horse which had been offered to him as the +paragon of its species, and for which and its kind, as he announced after riding a square +or two, he "was not paying a cent a carload."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"It is a lovely horse," said the beauty. "It is such a +beautiful color. But men never care for color."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Good color is a good thing, undoubtedly," said the master, +"but a beautiful horse is a good horse, not necessarily an animal which would look +well in a painted landscape, because its color would harmonize with the hue of the +trees."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"She is a beautiful girl, isn't she," said Esmeralda, +looking admiringly at the beauty, who, having just remembered Tennyson's line about +swaying the rein with flying finger tips, was executing some movements which made her +horse raise his ears to listen for the cause of such conduct, and then shake his head in +mild disapproval.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"What do I care for a pretty girl?" demanded the master. +"Pretty rider is what I want to see, and 'pretty rider' is 'good rider.' Wait until +that girl trots three minutes or so, and see whether or not she is pretty."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">The party went through the streets at a rapid walk, now and then +meeting a horse-car, now and then a stray wagon, but invariably allowed to take its own +way, with very little regard for the rule of the road. The American who drives, whatever +may be his social station, admires the courage of the woman who rides, but he is firmly +convinced that she does not understand horses, and gives her all the space available +wherein to disport herself.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Are we all right in placing the ladies on the left?" asked +Theodore, turning to the master.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Of course," cried the lawyer. "We follow the English +rule, and the left was the place of safety for the lady in the days when English +equestrianism was born. Travelers took the left of the road, and this placed the cavalier +between his lady and any possible danger."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"And in the United States they take the right, and she is +between him and any possible danger," said the master. "It is the custom, but it +seems illogical and foolish. True, it removes any danger that the lady may be crushed +between her own horse and her escort's, but who protects her from any passing car or +carriage, and in case of a runaway what can her escort, his left hand occupied with his +own reins, do to aid her with hers, or to disentangle her foot from the stirrup or her +habit from the pommels in case she is thrown? Can he snatch her from the saddle, after the +matter of one of Joaquin Miller's young men? The truth is that since the rule of the road +is 'keep to the right,' the rule of the saddle should be 'sit on the right,' but with a +lady on his bridle hand the horseman could not be at his best as an escort, even then.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"It is one of the many little absurdities in American customs; the old +story of the survival of the two buttons at the back of the coat, and, by the way, Miss +Esmeralda, the two buttons on the back of your habit are out of place, not because of your +tailor's fault, but because of yours. They should make a line at right angles with your +horse's spinal column. Draw yourself back a little, until you can feel the pommel under +your right knee. 'Draw' yourself back; don't lean, but keep yourself perfectly erect, your +back perpendicular to your horse's. Sit a little to the left; lean a little to the right. +Let your left shoulder go forward a little, your right shoulder backward. Now you are +exactly right. Try to remember your sensations at this minute, in order to be able to +reproduce them. When I say 'Careful,' pass yourself in review and endeavor to feel where +you are wrong. But," addressing the cavalryman, who was in advance with Versatilia, +"is this procession a funeral?"</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Not exactly," said the cavalryman, and the, after a +backward glance, he cried, in the fashion of a military riding-school master: +"Pr-r-re-pare to tr-r-r-ot—Trot!"</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Esmeralda remembered to shorten her reins, and resigned herself to +the Fates, who were propitious, enabling her to catch the cadence of the trot, and to rise +to it during the few seconds before the cavalryman slackened rein. "Careful," +said the master, and she shook herself into place, eliciting a hearty "Good!" +from him. "Look at your pretty girl," he growled softly, but savagely, and truly +the beauty solicited attention. Slipping to the left in her saddle, one elbow pointing +toward Cambridgeport and the other toward Dorchester, her right foot visible through her +habit, and her left all but out of the stirrup, she was attractive no longer, and to +complete the master's disgust she ejaculated: "My hair is coming down!"</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Better bring a nurse and a ladies' maid for her," he +muttered to Esmeralda, confidentially. "Hairpins in your saddle pocket? Well, you are +a sensible girl," and he rode forward with the little packet, giving it to the lawyer +to pass to the unfortunate young woman. But here arose a little difficulty. The space +between the lawyer's horse and the beauty's as they stood was too wide to allow him to lay +the parcel in her outstretched fingers. The Texan, on her right hand, had enough to do to +keep her horse and his own absolutely motionless that she might not be thrown by any +unexpected motion of either animal. Versatilia exclaimed in remonstrance, "Don't +leave me," when the cavalryman said, "Wait a second, I'll come and give them to +her;" the master sat quiet and smiling.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Why don't you dismount and give them to her?" cried +Theodore, and was out of his saddle, had placed the parcel in her hand, and was back in +his place again before either of the other three men could speak.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Very well done," said the master, approvingly, "but +not the right thing to do. Never leave your saddle without good cause, and never leave +your horse loose for a moment. Yes, I saw that you retained your hold of the reins; I was +talking at Miss Esmeralda."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Why didn't you make your horse step sideways?" he asked +the lawyer.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"I can't. He won't. See there!"</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Sundry pulls, precisely like those which he might have used had he +intended the horse to turn, a pair of absolutely motionless legs, and an unused whip were +accepted as evidence that the lawyer's "I can't" was perfectly true, and the +master and the cavalryman exchanged comprehending glances as the latter said: "Well, +don't mind. An eminent authority announced after the Boston horse show of 1889 that +high-school airs were of no use on the road. To make a horse move a step sideways is the +veriest little zephyr of an air, but it would have been of some use to you, then. Are we +ready now? What's that? Dropped your whip?"</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Up went the Texan's left heel, catching cleverly on the saddle as he +dropped lightly to the right, after the fashion of the Arab, the Moor, the Apache, of all +the nations which ride for speed and for fighting rather than for leaping and hunting, and +he caught the whip from the ground and was back in his place in a twinkling. The ladies +were unmoved, because inappreciative; the lawyer looked savagely envious, the cavalryman +and the master approving, and Theodore, frankly admiring, but no one said anything, the +little cavalcade rearranged itself, and once more moved on at a footpace until an electric +car appeared.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Ronald is like a rock," said the master, "and you +need not be afraid, but I'll take this beast along in advance. He will shy, or do some +outrageous thing, and he has a mouth as sensitive as the Mississippi's, and no more."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">The "beast" did indeed sidle and fret and prance, and +manifest a disposition to hasten to drown himself in the reservoir, beyond the reach of +self-propelling vehicles, and he repeated the performance a the sight of two other cars, +although evidently less alarmed than at first, but the fourth car was in charge of a +kindly-disposed driver, who came to a dead stop, out of pure amiability.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">This was too much for the "beast" to endure; a moving house +he was beginning to regard as tolerable, but a house which stopped short and glared at him +with all its windows was more than horse nature could endure, and he started for the next +county to institute an inquiry as to whether such actions were to be allowed, but found +himself forced to stop, and not altogether comfortable, while the master cried +good-naturedly: "Go along and take care of your car. I'll take care of my +horse!"</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"More than some other folks can do," said the driver, with +a quiet grin at the lawyer, whose angry, "Here, what are you doing!" shouted to +his plunging steed, had brought all the women in the car to the front, to explain to one +another that "that man was abusing his horse, poor thing."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">The car glided off, and Versatilia turned to look at it; her horse +stumbled slightly, jerking her wrists sharply, and but for the cavalryman's quick shifting +of the reins to his right hand and his strong grasp of her reins with his left, she might +have been in danger.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Never look back," lectured the master. Esmeralda was his +pupil, and he would have taken the whole centennial quadrille and all the cabinet ladies +to point his moral, had he seen them making equestrian blunders. "Where your horse +has been, where, he is, is the past. Look to the future, straight before you."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"The cavalryman looked back just now," Esmeralda ventured +to say.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Yes, but he turned his horse very slightly to do it, and he may +do almost anything because he has a perfect seat, and is a good horseman."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Suppose I hear something or somebody coming up behind me?"</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"If it have any intelligence, it will not hurt you. If it have +none, looking will do you no good. Turn out to the right as far as you can and look to the +front harder than ever, so as to be ready to guide your horse and to avoid any obstacles +in case he should start to run. What is the trouble with the ladies now?"</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"O, dear!" cried the beauty to the society young lady, +"your horse."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"What's the matter with him?" asked the other, still very +stately and not turning.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Oh! The dreadful creature has caught his tail on my horse's +bit," said the beauty.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Then you'd better take your horse's bit away," retorted +the other. "My horse's eyes are not at that end of him, and he can't be expected to +look at his tail."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"And you may be kicked," added the Texan. "Check him a +little; there! We ought not to be so close together, and we ought to be moving a little, I +think. Shall we trot again?"</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Everybody assented, the cavalryman and Versatilia set off, the others +followed as best they might, the beauty "going to pieces" in a minute or two, +according to the master, the society young lady stiffening visibly, losing the cadence of +the trot very soon, but making no outcry as she was tossed about uncomfortably, and not +bending her head to look at her reins, as Versatilia did.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"There's the advantage of training in other things," said +the master. "She's a good dancer and a good amateur actress, and she is controlling +herself as she would on a ballroom floor, and remembering the spectators as she would on +the stage. She's no rider, but is perfectly selfish and self-possessed, and she will cheat +her escort into thinking that she is one. Glad she's no pupil of mine, however! She always +heads the conversation, one of her friends told me the other day. That is to say, she is +always acting. I can't teach such a person anything; nobody can. She can teach herself, as +she can think of herself and love herself, but she can't go outside of herself—and the +lawyer will find it out after he has married her."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Esmeralda and Theodore stared in astonishment.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Walk," said the master, noticing that his pupil looked too +warm for comfort, and the three allowed the others to go on without them. +"Careful," he added, and Esmeralda, adjusting herself studiously, asked: +"Is it really easier to ride on the road than it is in the school? It seems so."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"It is a little, especially if the corners of the ring are so +near together that the horse goes in a circle, for then the rider has to lean to the +right, while on the road she may sit straight. Give me the right kind of horse for my +pupil to ride, and I would as leif give lessons on the road as anywhere, but it is not +well for the pupil, whose attention is distracted by a thousand things, and who learns +less in a year than she would in a month in school. There is no finish about the riding of +a woman so taught. She may be pretty, as you said of one of your friends, she may be +self-possessed, like the other, but she will betray her ignorance every moment. You were +surprised just now at what I said of the society young lady. A woman can't cheat an old +riding-master, after he has seen her in the saddle. He knows her and her little ways by +heart. Shall we start up? Ah!"</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Ronald, the "steady as a rock," was off and away at a +canter; Theodore was starting to gallop in pursuit, but was sharply ordered back by the +master, who went on himself at a rather slow canter, ready to break into a gallop if his +pupil were thrown, but keeping out of Ronald's hearing, lest he should be further startled +by finding himself followed. There was a clear stretch of road before her, and Esmeralda +sat down as firmly as possible, brought her left knee up against the pommel, clung firmly +with her right knee, held her hands low and her thumbs as firm as possible, and thought +very hard.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Very soon," she said to herself, "I shall be thrown +and dragged, and hat a figure I shall be going home, if I', not killed! But I sha'n't be! +I shall be ridiculous, and that's worse." Here she swept by the riding party, but as +Versatilia and the beauty turned to look at her, and forgot to control their horses, the +cavalryman and the Texan had to do it for them, and could do nothing for Esmeralda except +to shout "Whoa," which Ronald very properly disregarded. The master came up, and +the society young lady addressed him with, "Very silly of her to try to exhibit +herself so, isn't it?"</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"That's no exhibition; that's a runaway," said the master +grimly. "She's doing well too, poor girl," and he and Theodore went on after the +flying rider. Two or three carriages, the riders staring with horror; a pedestrian or two, +innocently wondering why a lady should be on the road alone; a small boy whistling +shrilly; these were all the spectators of Esmeralda's flight. She felt desolate and +deserted, and yet sure that it was best that she should be alone, since the master could +overtake her if he would, and she wondered if she should be very seriously injured when +thrown at last, but all the time she was talking to Ronald in a voice carefully kept at a +low pitch, and her hands were held with a steadiness utterly new to them, and the good +horse went on regularly, but faster and faster.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"That isn't a real runaway," said the master to himself. +"Ah, I see! Her whip is down and strikes him at every stride, and so she +unconsciously urges him forward. If there were a side road here, I'd gallop around and +meet her, or if there were fields on either side, I'd leap the fence and make a circuit +and cut her off, but through this place, with banks like a railway cutting on each side, +there is nothing to do."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Swifter and swifter! Esmeralda began to feel weaker, thought of +Theodore, and of some other things of which she never told even him, said a little prayer, +but all the time remembered her master's injunctions, and kept her place firmly, waiting +for the final, and, as she believed, inevitable crash, when lo! She saw that just in front +of her lay a long piece of half-mended road, full of ugly little stones, and she turned +Ronald on it, with a triumphant, "See how you like that, sir," and then sawed +his mouth. In half a minute he was walking. In another the master was beside her with +words of approval. Theodore galloped up, pale and anxious, and between the two she had +quite as much praise as was good for her, and, being told of the position of the whip, +found her confidence in Ronald restored.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"But you should never start up hastily," said the master. "Take +time for everything, and check your horse the instant he goes faster than you mean to have +him. You are a good girl, and you shall not be scolded, or snubbed, either," he +muttered, and the party came up, the cavalryman and the Texan loud in praise, the other +four clamorous with questions and advice.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"You look quite disheveled," said the society young lady +agreeably.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Ladies often do after they have been on the road a little +while. Excuse me, but one of your skirt buttons is unfastened," said the master, and, +not knowing how to pass her reins into her right hand so as to use her left to repair the +accident, the society young lady was effectually silenced, while the master, holding +Esmeralda's horse, made her wipe her face, arrange the curly locks flying about her ears, +readjust her hat, and generally smooth her plumage, until she was once more comfortable.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">After a little, the master proposed a trot up the hill, and +instructed Esmeralda to lean forward as her horse climbed upward, "If you should have +to trot down hill, lean back a little, and keep your reins short," he said.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">The lawyer and the society young lady, essaying to descend the next +hill brilliantly, barely escaped going over their horses' heads, and all four ladies were +glad when they perceived that they were going homeward.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"I like it," Esmeralda said to the master, "but I wish +I knew more, and I'm going to learn, and I see now that three lessons isn't enough, even +for a beginning."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"I knew a girl who took seventeen lessons and then was +thrown," said the society young lady. "Native ability is better than teaching. I +don't believe any master could make a rider of you, Esmeralda."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"A good teacher can make a rider out of anyone who will +study," said the master, to whom she looked for approval. "As for seventeen +lessons, they are better than seven, of course, but they are not much, after all. How many +dancing lessons, music lessons, elocution lessons have you taken? More than seventeen? I +thought so. Here's a railroad bridge, but no train coming. Had one been approaching, and +had there been no chance to cross it before it came, I should have made you turn Ronald +the other way, Miss Esmeralda, so that if he ran he would run out of what he thinks is +danger, and not into it. And now for an easy little trot home."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">An easy little trot it was, and Esmeralda, left at her own door, +where a groom waited to take her horse to the stable, was happy, but puzzled. +"Theodore," she cried, as soon as he appeared in the evening, "did you ask +the master to go with us? He treated me just as he does in school."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Yes, I did," said Theodore boldly. "I was afraid to +take charge of you alone. That was a 'road lesson.'"</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"You—you—exasperating thing!" cried Esmeralda. +"But then, you were sensible."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"That's tautology," said Theodore.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal"> </p> +<a name="6"></a> +<br> +<br> +<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">VI.</b></p> + +<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>A solitary horseman +might have been seen.<br> +<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span><i +style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">G.P.R. James.</i></p> + +<p class="MsoNormal"> </p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">And so you are feeling very meek after your road lesson and your +runaway, Esmeralda, and are a perfect Uriah Heep for 'umbleness, and are, henceforth and +forever, going to believe every syllable that your master utters, and to obey every +command the instant that it is given, and—there, that will do! And you are going to +take one private lesson so as to learn a few little things before you display your +progress before any other pupils again? One private lesson! Did your master advise it? +No-no, but he consented to give it, when you had persuaded him that it would be best for +you? When you had persuaded him? Behold the American pupil's definition of obedience: to +follow commands dictated by herself! However, there is no use in trying to eradicate the +ideas bequeathed and fostered by a hundred years of national self-government, so go to the +school at the hour when no other pupils are expected.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">The horses pace very solemnly around the great ring, and you adjust +yourself with wonderful dignity, feeling that your master must perceive by your improved +carriage and by the general perfection of your aspect that your exquisite timidity and +charming shyness have been responsible for your awkwardness in former lessons, when other +pupils were present, but now he leaves your side and takes a position in the centre of the +ring, whence he addresses you thus:</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Keep your reins even! The right ones are too short, the left +too long! Stop him! That is not stopping him! He took two steps forward after he checked +himself. Go forward, and try again when I tell you. Stop! Not so hard, not so hard! You +are making him back! Extend your arms forward! There! A little more, and you would have +made him rear! Whoa! Wo-ho! Now listen! Not so! Don't drop your reins in that way, and sit +so carelessly that a start would throw you from your place! Never leave your horse to +himself a second! Sit as well as you can, look between your horse's ears and listen! +Always use some discretion in choosing your place to stop. Do not try to stop when turning +a corner, even to avoid danger, but rather change your direction. In the ring, never stop +on the track, unless in obedience to your masters order, but turn out into the centre, but +when you have once told your horse to stop, make him do it, for his sake, as well as for +your own, if you have to spend an hour in the effort. And it will be an hour well spent, +so that you need not lose patient, and if you do lose it, do not allow your horse to +perceive it.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"To stop, you should press your leg and your whip against your +horse's sides; lift your hands a very little, and turn them in toward your body, lean back +and draw yourself up. There are six things to do: two to your horse, one on each side of +him, two with your hands and two with your body, and you must do them almost +simultaneously. Unless you do the first two, your horse will surely take a forward step or +two after stopping, in order to bring himself into a comfortable position. If you do not +cease doing the last four the moment that your horse has stopped, he may rear or he may +back several steps, and he should never do that, but should await an order for each step. +Now, do you remember the six things? Very well! Go forward! Stop! Did I tell you to do +anything with your arms? No> Well, why did you bring your elbows back of your waist, +then? It is allowable to do that—to save your life, but not to stop your horse. Bend +your hands at the wrist, turning the knuckles, if need be, until they are at right angles +with their ordinary position, so that the back of your hand is toward your horse's ears, +but keep the thumb uppermost all the time.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Now, think it over a moment! Go forward! Stop! Pretty well! Go +on! Don't lean forward too much when you start, and sit up again instantly.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Now walk around the school once, and go into all the corners. +Stop! You stopped pretty well, but you leaned back too far, and you did not draw yourself +up at all. Mind, you draw 'yourself' up; you don't try to pull the bit up through the +corners of your horse's mouth. What I wanted to say was that a turn is just half a stop as +far as your hands, leg and whip are concerned. To turn to the right, use your right hand +and whip, but keep your left leg and hand steady; to turn to the left, use your left leg +and hand and keep your whip and whip hand steady. When you turn to the right, lean to the +right instead of backward; 'lean,' not twist to the right, and turn your head to the right +so as to see what may be there.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"If you were on the road, and did not turn your head before +going down a side street, you might knock over a bicycle rider, and thereby hurt your +horse, which would be a pity," he says, with apparent indifference as to the bicycle +rider's possible injuries. "Now go around the school again. Left shoulder forward! +Right shoulder back! Sit to the right! Lean to the left! I told you to sit to the left, +the other day? And that is the reason that I have told you to sit to the right to-day. You +over-do it. Miss Esmeralda, if I were talking for my own pleasure, I should say pretty +things to you, but I am talking to teach you, and when I say 'This is wrong! This is +wrong!' and again 'This is wrong!' I do it for you, not for myself. When your father and +mother say 'This is wrong; you must not do it, or you will be sorry,' you do not look at +them as if you thought them to be unreasonable—or, I trust that you do not," he +adds, mentally. "Heaven only knows what an American girl may do when anybody says, +'You must not' to her.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Now," he goes on aloud, "it is the same with your +teacher; he says 'You are wrong,' lest you should be sorry by and by, and he is patient +and says it many times, as your father and mother do, and he says it every time that you +do anything wrong, unless you do so many wrong things at once that he cannot speak of each +one. Now you shall turn to the right, and remember that a turn is half a stop. Go across +the school and then turn to the left! Keep a firm hold on your right rein now so as to +keep your horse close to the wall. Where, where are your toes? It was not necessary to +make you turn so as to see your right foot through your riding habit as I can now, to know +that they were pointing outward. Your right shoulder told the story by drooping forward. +M. de Bussigny lays especial stress on this point in his manual, and you will find that +your whole position depends more on that seemingly unimportant right foot than on many +other things, so bend your will to holding it properly, close against the saddle. Walk on +now, keeping on a straight line. If you cannot do it in the school, you cannot on the +road, and many an ugly scrape against walls, horse-cars, and other horses you will receive +unless you can keep to the right and in a straight line. Now turn to the left, and go +straight across the school. Straight! Fix your eye on something when you start, and ride +at it with as much determination as if it were a fence; now you turn to the right again +and go forward. Have you read Delsarte?"</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">No, you murmur to yourself, you have not read Delsarte, and, if you +had, you do not believe that you could remember it or anything else just at present. What +an endless string of directions! You wish that there was another pupil with you to take +the burden of a few of them! You wish you were—oh! Anywhere. This is your obedience, is +it Esmeralda? Well, you don't care! This is dull! Your horse thinks so, too. He gently +tries the reins, and, finding that you offer no resistance, he decides to take a little +exercise, and starts off at a canter, keeping away from the wall most piously, avoiding +the corners as if some Hector might be in ambuscade there to catch and tame him, and +rushing on faster and faster, as you do nothing in particular to stop him.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Lean to the right," cries the master, and you obey, but +the horse continues his canter, almost a gallop now, when suddenly your wits return to +you, you draw back first the right hand and then the left, he begins to trot, and by some +miracle you begin to rise, and continue to do it, you do not know exactly how, feeling a +delight in it, an exhilarating, exultant sensation as if flying. "Keep your right leg +close to the saddle below the knee and turn your toes in!" You obey, and even +remember to press your left knee to the saddle also and to keep your heel down. +"Don't rise to the left! Rise straight! Your horse is circling to the right, and you +must lean to the right to rise straight! Take him into the corners so that he will move +more on a straight line, and you can rise straight and be as much at ease as if on the +road. Whoa! Now, don't change your position, but look at yourself! You did not shorten +your reins when you began to trot, and, if your horse had stumbled, you could not have +aided him to regain his balance. Had you shortened them properly, you could, by sitting +down, using your leg and whip lightly and turning your hands toward your body, have +brought him down to a walk without hurling yourself forward against the pommel in that +fashion. Now, adjust yourself and your reins, and start forward once more," and you +obey, and are beginning to flatter yourself that your master does not know that your +canter was accidental, when he warns you against allowing a horse to do anything unbidden.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"You should have stopped him at once," he says. "He +will very likely try to repeat his little maneuver in a few minutes. When he does, check +him instantly, not by your voice, but as you have been directed. And now, have you read +Delsarte? No? If you have time, you might read a chapter or two with advantage, simply for +the sake of learning that a principle underlies all attitudes.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"He divides the body into three parts; the head, torso, and +legs, and he teaches that the first and third should act on the same line, while the +second is in opposition to them. For instance, if you be standing and looking toward the +right, your weight should rest on your right leg and your torso should be turned to the +left. Neither turn should be exaggerated, but the two should be exactly proportioned, one +to another.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Now for riding, your body is divided into three parts, your +head and torso making one, your legs above the knee, the second, and your legs below the +knee, the third, and you will find that the first and third will act together, whether you +desire it or not. Your right foot is properly placed now, but turn its toes outward and +upward; you see what becomes of your right shoulder. Now try to make a circle to the +right, a volte we call it, because it is best to become accustomed to a few French words, +as there are really no English equivalents for many of the terms used in the art of +equestrianism.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"To make a volte you have only to turn to the right and to keep +turning, going steadily away from the wall until opposite your starting point, and then +regaining it by a half-circle. Making voltes is not only a useful exercise, showing your +horse that you really mean to guide him, and teaching you to execute a movement steadily, +but it affords an excellent way of diverting the horse's attention from the mischief which +Satan is always ready to find for idle hoofs. Give him a few voltes and he forgets his +plans for setting off at a canter. Do you understand? Very well. When you are half-way +down the school try to make a volte. I will give you no order. Your horse would understand +if I did and would begin the movement himself, and you should do it unaided."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">You try the volte, and convince yourself that the geometry master who +taught you that a circle was a polygon with an infinite number of sides was more exact and +less poetical than you thought him in the days before the riding-school began to reform +your judgment on many things. You are conscious of not making a respectable curve in +return, and you draw a deep breath of disgust as you say, "That was very bad, wasn't +it?"</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Not for the first time. Keep your left hand and leg steady, and +try it again on the other side of the ring. Better! Now walk around, and make him go into +the corners, if you have to double your left wrist in doing it, but don't move your arm, +and when you begin to bend you right wrist to turn, straighten your left, and remember to +lean your body and turn your head, if you want your horse to turn his body. Your wrist +acts on his head and keeps him in line; your whip and leg bring his hind legs under him, +but you must move your body if you want him to move his.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Now, you shall make a half volte, or shall 'change hands,' as +it is sometimes called, because, if you start with your left hand nearest the wall, you +will come back to the wall with your right hand nearest to it; or, to speak properly, 'if +you start on the right hand of the school, you will end on the left hand.' For the half +volte, make a half circle to the right, and then ride in a diagonal line to a point some +distance back on your track, and when you are close to it make three quarters of a turn to +the left and you will find yourself on the left of the school, and in a position to +practice keeping your horse to the right. Try it, beginning about two thirds of the way +down the long side of the school. Now to get back to the right hand, you may turn to the +left across the school, and turn to the left again.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"There is a better way of dong it, but that is enough for +to-day. Walk now. Do you see how much better your horse carries himself, and how much +better you carry your hands, after those little exercises? Now you must try and imagine +yourself doing them over and over and over again, to accustom your mind to them, just as +when learning to play scales and five-finger exercises you used to think them out while +walking. Shall you not need pictures and diagrams to assist you? Not if you have as much +imagination as any horsewoman should have. Not if you have enough imagination to manage a +cow, much more to enter into the feelings of a good horse. Pictures are invaluable to the +stupid; they benumb and enervate the clever, and turn them into apish imitators, instead +of making them able to act from their own knowledge and volition. Theory will not make you +a good rider, but a really good rider without theory is an impossibility, and your theory +must have a deeper seat than your retinae. Now, you shall have a very little trot, and +then you may walk for ten minutes, and try to do voltes and half voltes by yourself, +asking me for aid if you cannot remember how to execute the movements. Doing them will +help you to pass away the time when you are too tired to trot, and will keep you from +having any dull moments."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">And you, Esmeralda, you naughty girl! You forgot all about your +sulkiness half an hour ago, and, looking your master in the face, you say: "But +nobody ever has dull moments in riding-school." There! Finish your lesson and walk +off to the dressing-room; you will be trying to trade horses with somebody the next thing, +you artful, flattering puss!</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal"> </p> +<a name="7"></a> +<br> +<br> +<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">VII.</b></p> + +<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Here we are riding, she +and I!<br> +<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span><i +style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Browning.</i></p> + +<p class="MsoNormal"> </p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">What is it now, Esmeralda? By your blushing and stammering it is +fairly evident that another of your devices for learning on the American plan—that is +to say, by not studying—is in full possession of your fancy, and that again you expect +to become a horsewoman by a miracle; come, what is it? A music ride? Nell has an +acquaintance who always rides to music, and asserts that it is as easy as dancing; that +the music "fairly lifts you out of the saddle," and that the pleasure of +equestrian exercise is doubled when it is done to the sound of the flute, violin, and +bassoon, or whatever may be the riding-school substitutes?</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">As for lifting you out of the saddle, Esmeralda, it is quite possible +that music might execute that feat, promptly and neatly, once, and might leave you out, +were it produced suddenly and unexpectedly by "dot leetle Sherman bad," and it +is undoubtedly true that, were you a rider, music would exhilarate you, quicken your +motions, stimulate your nerves, and assist you as it assists a soldier when marching. It +is also true that it will aid even you somewhat, by indicating on what step you should +rise, so that your motions will not alternate with those of your horse, to your +discomfiture and his disgust, and that thus, by mechanically executing the movement, you +may acquire the power of seeing that you are not performing it when you rise once a minute +or thereabouts, but a music ride is an exercise which a wise pupil will not take until +advised thereto by her master. Still, have your own way! Why did George Washington and the +other fathers of the republic exist, if its daughters must be in bondage to common sense +and expediency?</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Borrow Nell's habit once more, for the criticism to be undergone on +the road is mild compared to that of a gallery of spectators before whom you must +repeatedly pass in review, and who may select you as the object of their especial +scrutiny. Dress at home, if possible; if not, go to the school early, and array yourself +rapidly, but carefully, for there may be fifty riders present during the evening, and +there will be little room to spare on the mounting-stand, and no minutes to waste on +buttoning gloves, shortening skirt straps or tightening boot lacings. Remember all that +you have been taught about mounting and about taking your reins, and think assiduously of +it, with a determination to pay no attention to the gallery. There will be no spectators +on the mounting-stand, and Theodore, who will take charge of you in the ring, will mount +before you do, and when you have been put in your saddle by one of the masters, and start, +he will take his place on your right, nearer the centre of the ring. While you are walking +your horses slowly about, turning corners carefully and never ceasing to control your +reins, warn him that when you say, "Centre," he must turn out to the right +instantly, that you also may do so. If possible, you will not pronounce the word, but will +ride as long as the horses canter or trot in time to the music.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Do you understand," Theodore asks, "that these horses +adjust their gait to the music?"</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"So Nell's friend says."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Well, I don't believe it. They are good horses, but I don't +believe that they practice circus tricks. Why must I go to the centre the minute that you +bid me? Why couldn't you pull up and pass out behind me?"</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Because if I did, somebody might ride over me. It is not proper +to stop while on the track."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Oh-h! How long do they trot or canter at a time? Half an +hour?"</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Only a few minutes," you answer, wondering whether +Theodore really supposes that you could canter, much less trot half an hour, even if +stimulated by the music of the spheres.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"That's a pretty rider," he says, as a girl circles lightly +past, sitting fairly well, and rising straight, but with her arms so much extended that +her elbow is the apex of a very obtuse angle, though her forearms are horizontal. You +explain this point to Theodore, who replies that she looks pretty, and seems to be able to +trot for some time, whereupon your heart sinks within you. What will he say when he sees +the necessary brevity of your performance?</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Other riders enter: two or three men mounted on their own horses, +beautiful creatures concerning whose value fabulous tales are told in the stable; the best +rider of the school, very quietly and correctly dressed, and managing her horse so easily +that the women in the gallery do not perceive that she is guiding him at all, although the +real judges, old soldiers, a stray racing man or two, the other school pupils and the +master—regard her admiringly, and the grooms, as they bring in new horses, keep an eye +on her and her movements, as they linger on their way back to the stable.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Her horse is very good," Theodore admits, "but I +don't think much of her. Well, yes, she is pretty," he admits, as she executes the +Spanish trot for a few steps and then pats her horse's shoulder; "it's pretty, but +anybody could do it on a trained horse, couldn't they, sir?" he asks your master, who +rides up, mounted on his own pet horse.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Anybody who knew how. The horse has been trained to answer +certain orders, but the orders must be given. An untrained horse would not understand the +orders, no matter how good an animal he might be. Antinous might not have been able to +ride Bucephalus, and I don't believe that Alexander could have coaxed Rosinante into a +Spanish trot. It isn't enough to have a Corliss engine, or enough to have a good engineer: +you must have them both, and they must be acquainted with one another. I don't believe +that horse would do that for you."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"No, I don't think he would," Theodore says dryly, for he +has been watching, and has reluctantly owned to himself that he does not see how the +movement is effected. Meantime, you, Esmeralda, have been arduously devoting yourself to +maintaining a correct attitude, and are rewarded by hearing somebody in the gallery wonder +whether you represent the kitchen poker or Bunker Hill Monument.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Don't mind," your master says, encouragingly. "It is +better to be stiffly erect than to be crooked, and as for the person who spoke, she could +not ride a Newfoundland dog," and with that he touches his hat, and rides lightly +across the ring to speak to a lady whose horse has, in the opinion of the gallery, been +showing a very bad temper, although in reality every plunge and curvet has been made in +answer to her wrist and to the tiny spur which his rider wears and uses when needed. The +lady nods in answer to something which the master says, the two draw near to the wall, +side by side, the others fall in behind them, and the band begins a waltz, playing rather +deliberately at first, but soon slightly accelerating the time.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">There is very little actual need of guiding your horse, Esmeralda, +because long habit has taught him what to do at a music-ride, but you do right to continue +to endeavor to make him obey you. Should he stumble; should that man riding before you and +struggling to make his horse change his leading foot fail in the attempt, and cause the +poor creature to fall; should the rider behind you lose control of her horse, your firm +hold of the reins would be of priceless value to you, but now the waltz rhythm suddenly +changes to that of a march, and your horse begins to trot, slowly and with little action +at first, and then with a freer, longer stride which really lifts you out of the saddle, +sending you rather too high for grace, indeed, but making the effort very slight for you, +and enabling you to think about your elbows, and sitting to the right and keeping your +right shoulder back and your right foot close to the saddle and pointing downward, and +your left knee also close, and "about seventy-five other things," as you sum up +the case to yourself. Thanks to this, you are enabled to continue until the music stops, +and Theodore says, approvingly, "Well, you can ride a little."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"A very little," your master says. She has learned +something, of course, but it would be the unkindest of flattery for me to fell her that +she does well."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"One must begin to ride in early childhood," Theodore says.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"One should begin to be taught in childhood," the master +amends, "but it is not absolutely necessary. Some of the best riders in the French +Army never mounted until they went to the military school, and some of the best riders at +West Point only know a horse by sight until they fall into the clutches of the masters +there, and then!" His countenance expresses deep commiseration.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Now," he adds, "if you take my advice, you two, you +will take places in the centre of the ring; you will sit as well as you know how, Miss +Esmeralda, and you will watch the others through the next music. It is perfectly +allowable," he adds, drawing rein a moment as he passes, "to sit a little +carelessly when your horse is at rest, always keeping firm hold of the reins, but I would +rather that you did not do it until you had ridden a little more and are firmer in your +seat. Hollow your waist the least in the world, for the sake of our poker-critic in the +gallery, and watch for bad riding as well as for good," and away he goes, and again +the double circle of riders sweeps around the ring, and you have time to see that the +horses seem to enjoy the motion, and that their action is more easy and graceful than it +is when they are obeying the commands of poor riders.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Theodore indulges in a little sarcasm at the expense of a man whose +elbows are on a level with his shoulders, while his two hands are within about three +inches of one another on the reins, and his horse has as full possession of his head as of +his body and legs, which is saying much, for his riders toes are pointing earthward and +his heels apparently trying to find a way to one another through the body of his steed. +Another man, riding at an amble into which he has forced his fat horse by using a Mexican +bit, and keeping his wrists in constant motion; and another, who leans backward until his +nose is on a level with the visor of his cap, also attract his attention, but he persists +in his opinion that the best riders among the ladies are those who can trot and canter the +longest, until your master, coming up, says in answer to your protest against such heresy, +"No. Ease and a good seat are indeed essential, but they are not everything. They +insure comfort and confidence, but not always safety. It is well to be able to leap a +fence without being thrown. It is better to know how to stop and open a gate and shut it +after you, lest some day you should have a horse which cannot leap, or a sprained wrist +which may make the leap imprudent for yourself. You can acquire the seat almost insensibly +while learning the management, but you must study in order to learn the management. +However, you came mainly for enjoyment to-night, I think. Go and ride some more."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">And you obey, and you have the enjoyment. And when you go to the +dressing-room, it is with a feeling of perfect indifference to the gallery critics, and +when you come down, ready for the street, you have a little gossip with the master.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">This is the only kind of music ride, he tells you, practicable for +riders of widely varying ability, but the ordinary circus is but a poor display of +horsemanship compared to what may be seen in some private evening classes in this country, +or in military schools. There are groups of riders in Boston and in New York, friends who +have long practiced together, who can dancer the lancers and Virginia reels as easily on +horseback as on foot, and who can ride at the ring as well as Lord Lindesay himself, or as +well as the pretty English girls who amuse themselves with the sport in India.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Just think," you sigh, "to be able to make your horse +go forward and back, and to move in a circle, a little bit of a circle, and to do all of +it exactly in time! Oh!"</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">And then, seeing Theodore perfectly unmoved, your master tells of the +military music rides when, rank after rank, the soldiers dash across the wide spaces of +the school and stop at a word, or by a preconcerted, silent signal, every horse's head in +line, every left hand down, saber or lance exactly poised, every foot motionless, horse +and rider still as if wrought from bronze. And then he tells of the labyrinthine +evolutions when the long line moving over the school floor coils and uncoils itself more +swiftly than any serpent, each horse moving at speed, each one obeying as implicitly as +any creature of brass and iron moved by steam. And then he talks of broadsword fights, in +which the left hand, managing the horse, outdoes the cunning of the right, and of the +great reviews, when, if ever, a monarch must feel his power as he sees his squadrons dash +past him, saluting as one man, and reflects on the expenditure of mental and physical +power represented in that one moment's display.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"You can't learn to do such things as these," he says, +"by mere rough riding. Why, only the other day, when Queen Victoria went to +Sandringham, the gentlemen of the Norfolk County hunt turned out to escort her carriage, +all in pink, all wearing the green velvet caps of the hunt, all splendidly mounted and +perfectly appointed. They were a magnificent sight, and it was no wonder that Her Majesty +looked at them with approval.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"In a dash across country they would probably have surpassed any +other riders in the world, unless, perhaps, those of some other English country, but when +Her Majesty and the Prince of Wales appeared at a front window, and the gentlemen rode +past to salute them, what happened? The first three or four ranks went on well enough, +although Frenchmen, or Spaniards, or Germans would have done better, because they, had +they chosen, would have saluted and then reined backward, but the Englishmen made a +gallant show, and Her Majesty smiled. Somebody raised a cheer, and the horses began to +rear and perform movements not named in the school manuals. The Queen laughed outright, +and the gentlemen finished their pretty parade in some confusion. Now a very little school +training would have prevented that accident, and the huntsmen would have been as +undisturbed as Queen Christina was that day when her horse began to plunge while in a +procession, and she quickly brought him to his senses, and won the heart of every Spaniard +who saw her by showing that 'the Austrian' could ride. An English hunting-man's seat is so +good that he is often careless about fine details, but a trained horseman is careless +about nothing, and a trained horsewoman is like unto him."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">And now the lights are out, and you and Theodore go away, and, +walking home, lay plans for further work in the saddle, for he, too, has caught the +riding-fever, and now you begin to think about class lessons.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal"> </p> +<a name="8"></a> +<br> +<br> +<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">VIII.</b></p> + +<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>All in a wow.<br> +<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span><i +style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Sothern.</i></p> + +<p class="MsoNormal"> </p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">And you really fancy, Esmeralda, that you are ready for class +lessons? You have been in the saddle only six times, remember. But you have been assured, +on the highest authority, that fifty lessons in class are worth a hundred private lessons? +And the same authority says that the class lessons should be preceded by at least twice as +much private instruction as you have enjoyed; but, naturally, you suppress this +unfavorable context. You think that you cannot begin to subject yourself to military +discipline so soon?</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">After that highly edifying statement of your feelings, Esmeralda, +hasten away to school before the dew evaporates from your dawning humility, and make +arrangements for entering a class of beginners. You are fortunate in arriving half way +between two "hours," and find to your delight that you may begin to ride with +five or six other pupils on the next stroke of the clock, and you hasten to array +yourself, and come forth just in time to see another class, a long line of pretty girls, +making its closing rounds, the leader sitting with exquisitely balanced poise, which seems +perfectly careless, but is the result of years of training and practice; others following +her with somewhat less grace, but still accomplishing what even your slightly taught +vision perceives to be feats of management far beyond you; still others, one blushing +little girl with her hat slung on her arm, the heavy coils of her hair falling below her +waist; and an assistant master riding with the last pupil, who is less skillful than the +others, while another master rides up and down the line or stands still in the centre of +the ring, criticising, exhorting, praising, using sarcasm, entreaty and sharp command, +until the zeal and energy of all Gaul seem centered in his speech.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">The clock strikes, and in a trice the whole class is dismounted, and +its members have scampered away to make themselves presentable for the journey home, and +to you, awaiting your destiny in the reception room, enter Versatilia, the beauty, and the +society young lady, and Nell, and you stare at them in wrathful astonishment fully +equalled by theirs, and then, in the following grand outburst of confession, you are +informed that, each one having planned to outgeneral the others and to become a wondrous +equestrian, the Fates and the wise fairy who, sitting in a little room overlooking the +ring, presides over the destinies of classes, have willed that you should be taught +together.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"And there are three other young ladies who have never ridden at +all," the wise fairy says, "and they are to ride behind<span +style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>you, and you must do very well in order to +encourage them," she adds with a kind smile; and then there is a general muster of +grooms and horses, and in a moment you are all in your saddles and walking about the ring, +into which, an instant after, another lady rides easily and gracefully, to be saluted by +both masters with a sigh of relief, and requested to take the lead, which she does, +trotting lightly across the ring, wheeling into line and falling into a walk with trained +precision, and now the lesson really begins.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"You must understand, ladies," says the teacher, that you +must always, in riding in class, keep a distance of about three feet between your horse +and the one before you, and that you must preserve this equally in the corners, on the +short sides of the school, and on the long sides."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"That's easy enough, I'm sure," says the society young +lady, taking it upon herself to answer, and eliciting an expression of astonishment from +the teacher, not because he is surprised, habit already rendering him sadly familiar with +young women of her type, but because he wishes to relegate her to her proper position of +submissive silence as soon as may be.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"You think so?" he asks. "Then we shall depend on you +to regard the distance with great accuracy. At present you are two feet too far in the +rear. Forward! Now, ladies, when I say 'forward,' it is not alone for one; it is for all +of you; each one must look and see whether or not her horse is in the right place. And she +must not bend sideways to do it, Miss Versatilia. She must look over her horse's head +between his ears. Now, forward! Now, look straight between your horse's ears, each one of +you, and see something on the horse before you that is just on a line with the top of his +head, and use that as a guide to tell you whether or not you are in place! Now, forward, +Miss—Miss Lady! Not so fast! Keep walking! Do not let him trot! Keep up in the corners! +Do not let your horse go there to think! Use your whip lightly! Not so, not so!" as +the society young lady brings down her whip, half on the shoulder of gentle Toto, half on +his saddle, and sets him dancing lightly out of line, to the discomfiture of Versatilia's +horse, who follows him from a sense of duty.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Take your places again," cries your teacher, "and +keep to the wall! If you had had proper control of your horse, that would not have +happened, Miss Versatilia! Now, Miss Lady, hold your whip in the hollow of your hand, and +use it by a slight movement, not by raising your arm and lashing, lashing, lashing as if +you were on the race course. A lady is not a jockey, and she should employ her whip almost +as quietly as she moves her left foot. Forward, forward! And keep on the track, ladies! +Keep your horses' heads straight by holding your reins perfectly even, then their bodies +will be straight, and you will make one line instead of being on six lines as you are now. +And, Miss Esmeralda, forward! Use your whip! Not so gently! It is not always enough to +give your horse one little tap. Give him many, one after the other with quickened +movement, so that he will understand that you are in a hurry. It is like the reveille +which sounds ever louder until everybody is awake!</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Now, you must not make circles! Make squares! Go into the +corners! Don't pull on your horse's head, Miss Nell! He thinks that you mean him to stop, +and then you whip him and he tries to go on, and you pull again, and he knows not what to +think. Always carry out whatever purpose you begin with your horse if you can. If +sometimes you make a mistake, and cannot absolutely correct it because of those behind +you, guide your horse to his proper place, and the next time that you come to that part of +the ring, make him go right! Forward, forward! Ladies, not one of you is in the right +place! Keep up! Keep up! Miss Lady, you must go forward regularly! Now prepare to trot! +No, no! Walk! When I say, 'Prepare to trot,' it is not for you to begin, but to think of +what you must do to begin, and you must not let your horses go until I give the second +order, and then not too fast at first. Now, prepare to trot! Trot! Not quite so fast, Miss +Lady; gently! Keep up, keep up, Miss Beauty! Miss Esmeralda, you are sitting too far to +the left, your left shoulder is too far back! on't hold your hands so high, Miss +Versatilia! Rise straight, Miss Esmeralda! Now, remember, ladies, what I say is for all. +Prepare to whoa! Whoa!"</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">The leader, by an almost imperceptible series of movements, first +sitting down in her saddle, then slightly relaxing her hold of the reins, and turning both +hands very slightly inward, brings her horse to a walk and continues on her way. The +others, with more or less awkwardness, come to a full stop, and your teacher laughs.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"When I say that," he explains, "I mean to cease +trotting, not to stop. Go forward, and remember how you have been taught to go forward, +Miss Esmeralda. It is not enough to frown at your horse. Now, prepare to trot! Trot!" +And then he repeats again and again that series of injunctions which already seems so +threadbare to you, Esmeralda, but which you do not follow, not because you do not try, but +because you have not full control of your muscles, and then comes once more the order, +"Prepare to whoa. Whoa!" and a volley of sharp reminders about the solemn duty +of keeping a horse moving while turning corners, and once more the column proceeds as +regularly as possible.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"I observe," says your teacher, riding close to you, +"that you seem timid, Miss Esmeralda. Do you feel frightened."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"No," you assure him.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Then it is because you are nervous that you are so rigid. Try +not to be stiff. Give yourself a little more flexibility in the fingers, the wrists, the +elbows, everywhere! You are not tired? No? Be easy then, be easy!" And you remember +that you have been likened unto a poker, and sadly think that, perhaps the comparison was +just.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"The other master shall ride with you for a few rounds," he +continues; "that will give you confidence, and you will not be nervous." You +indignantly disclaim the possession of nerves, he smiles indulgently, and the other +teacher rides up beside you, and advises you steadily and quietly during the next +succession of trotting and walking, and, conscious of not exerting yourself quite so much +and of being easier, you begin to think that perhaps you have a nerve or two somewhere, +and you determine to conquer them.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"You are sitting too far to the right now," says your new +guide, the most quiet of North Britons. "There should be about half an inch of the +saddle visible to you beyond the edge of your habit, if it fit quite smooth, but you would +better not look down to se it. It would do no harm for once, perhaps, but it would look +queer, and might come to be a habit. Try to judge of your position by the feeling of your +shoulders and by thinking whether you are observing every rule; but, once in a great while, +when you are walking, take your reins in your left hand, pass your right hand lightly +along the edge of your saddle, ad satisfy yourself that you are quite correct in position. +If you be quite sure that you can take a downward glance, without moving your head, try it +occasionally, but very rarely. Use this, in fact, as you would use a measure to verify a +drawing after employing every other test, and if any teacher notice you and reprove you +for doing it, do not allow yourself to use it again for two or three lessons, for, unless +you can be quiet about it, it is better not to use it at all."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Ladies, ladies," cries a new voice, at the sound of which +the leader is seen to sit even better than before, "this is not a church, that you +should go to sleep while you are taught truth! Attend to your instructor! Keep up when he +tells you. Make your movements with energy. You tire him; you tire me; you tire the good +horses! how then, rouse yourselves! Prepare to trot! Trot!" And away go the horses, +for it is not every hour that they hear the strong voice which means that instant +obedience must be rendered. "Keep up! keep up!" cries your teacher. "Come +in!" says your own guide, and then pauses himself, to urge one of the beginners +behind you, and for a minute or two the orders follow one another thick and fast, the +three men working together, each seeming to have eyes for each pupil, and to divine the +intentions of his coadjutors, and then comes the order, "Prepare to whoa! Whoa! and +the master sits down on the mounting-stand, and frees his mind on the subject of corners, +a topic which you begin to think is inexhaustible.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Please show these ladies how to go into a corner," he +concludes, and your teacher does so, executing the movement so marvelously that it seems +as if he would have no difficulty in performing it in any passageway through which his +horse could walk in a straight line. The whole class gazes enviously, to be brought to the +proper frame of mind by a sharp expostulatory fire of: "Keep your distance! +Forward!" with about four times as many warnings addressed to the society young lady +as to all the others; and then suddenly, unexpectedly, the clock strikes and the lesson is +over.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">The society young lady dresses herself with much precision and +deliberation, and announces that she will never, no, never! never so long as she lives, +come again; and in spite of Nell's attempts to quiet her, she repeats the statement in the +reception room, in the master's hearing, aiming it straight at his quiet countenance.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"No?" he says, not so much disturbed as she could desire. +"You should not despair, you will learn in time."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"I don't despair," she answers; "but I know something, +and I will not be treated as if I knew nothing."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"An, you know something," he repeats, in an interested way. +"But what you do not know, my young lady, is how little that something is! This is a +school; you came here to be taught. I will not cheat you by not teaching you."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"And it is no way to teach! Three men ordering a class at +once!"</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Ah, it is 'no way to teach'! Now, it is I who am taking a +lesson from you. I am greatly obliged, but I must keep to my own old way. It may be wrong +—for you, my young lady—but it has made soldiers to ride, and little girls, and other +young ladies, and I am content. And these others? Are they not coming any more?"</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">And every one of those cowardly girls huddles away behind you, +Esmeralda, and leaves you to stammer, "Y-yes, sir, but you do s-scold a little +hard."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"That," says the master, "is my bog voice to make the +horses mind, and to make sure that you hear it. And I told you the other day that I spoke +for your good, not for my own. If I should say every time I want trotting, 'My dear and +much respected beautiful young ladies, please to trot,' how much would you learn in a +morning?"</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"We are ladies," says the society young lady, "and we +should be treated as ladies."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"And you—or these others, since you retire—are my pupils, +and shall be treated as my pupils," he says with a courtly bow and a "Good +morning," and you go away trying to persuade the society young lady to reconsider.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Not that I care much whether she does or not," Nell says +confidentially to you. "She's too overbearing for me," and just at that minute +the voice of the society young lady is heard to call the master "overbearing," +and you and Nell exchange delighted, mischievous smiles.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Now for that stiffness of yours, Esmeralda, there is a remedy, as +there is for everything but death, and you should use it immediately, before the rigidity +becomes habitual. Continue your other exercises, but devote only about a third as much +time to them, and use the other two thirds for Delsarte movements.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">First: Let your hands swing loosely from the wrist, and swing them +lifelessly to and fro. Execute the movement first with the right hand then with the left, +then with both.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Second: Let the fingers hang from the knuckles, and shake them in the +same way and in the same order.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Third: Let the forearm hang from the elbow, and proceed in like +manner.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Fourth: Let the whole arm hang from the shoulder, and swing the arms +by twisting the torso.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Execute the finger and hand movements with the arms hanging at the +side, extended sidewise, stretched above the head, thrust straight forward, with the arms +bent at right angles to them and with the arms flung backward as far as possible. Execute +the forearm movements with the arms falling at the side, and also with the elbow as high +as the shoulder.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">After you have performed these exercises for a few days, you will +begin to find it possible to make yourself limp and lifeless when necessary, and the +knowledge will be almost as valuable as the ability to hold yourself firm and steady. You +will find the exercises in Mrs. Thompson's "Society Gymnastics," but these are +all that you will need for at least one week, especially if you have to devote many hours +to the task of persuading the society young lady not to leave your class unto you +desolate.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal"> </p> +<a name="9"></a> +<br> +<br> +<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">IX.</b></p> + +<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>"Left wheel into +line!" and they<br> +<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>wheel and obey.<br> +<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span><i +style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Tennyson.</i></p> + +<p class="MsoNormal"> </p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">When you arrive at the school for your second class lesson, +Esmeralda, you find the dressing-room pervaded by a silence as clearly indicative of a +recent tempest as the path cloven through a forest by a tornado. From the shelter of +screens and from retired nooks, come sounds indicative of garments doffed and donned with +abnormal celerity and severity, but never a word of joking, and never a cry for +deft-fingered Kitty's assistance, and then, little by little, even these noises die away, +and the palace of the Sleeping Beauty could not be more quiet. No girl stirs from her +lurking-place, until our yourself issue from your pet corner, and then Nell, a warning +finger on her lip, noiselessly emerges from hers, and you go into the reception room +together, and she explains to you that, despite her announcement that she would never come +again, the society young lady has appeared, and has announced her intention to defend what +she grandly terms her position as a lady.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"And the master will think us, her associates, as unruly as she +is!" Nell almost sobs. "If I were he, I would send the whole class home, +there!" But the other girls now enter, each magnificently polite to the others, and +the file of nine begins its journey along the wall, attended as before, the society young +lady taking great pains about distance, and really doing very well, but the beauty sitting +with calm negligence which soon brings a volley of remonstrance from both teachers, who +address her much after the fashion of Sydney Smith's saying, "You are on the high +road to ruin the moment you think yourself rich enough to be careless."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"You must not keep your whip in contact with your horse's +shoulder all the time," lectured one of the teachers, "if you do, you have no +means of urging him to go forward a little faster. Keep it pressed against the saddle, not +slanting outward or backward. When you use it, do it without relaxing your hold upon the +reins, for if, by any mischance, your horse should start quickly, you will need it. +Forward, ladies, forward! don't stop in the corners! Use your whips a very little, just as +you begin to turn! Miss Esmeralda, keep to the wall! No, no! Don't keep to the wall by +having your left rein shorter than your right! They should be precisely even."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"As you approach the corner," says the other teacher +quietly, speaking to you alone,<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>"carry +your right hand a little nearer to your left without bending your wrist, so that your rein +will just touch your horse's neck on the right side. That will keep his head +straight."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"But he seems determined to go to the right," you object.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"That is because your right rein is too short now. While we are +going down the long side of the school, make the reins precisely even. Now, lay the right +rein on his neck, use your whip, and touch him with your heel to make him go on; bend your +right wrist to turn him, use your whip once more, and go on again!"</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Forward, Miss Esmeralda, forward!" cries the other +teacher.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"That is because Miss Lady did not go into the corner, and so is +too far in advance," your teacher explains. "You must, in class, keep your +distance as carefully when the rifer immediately before you is wrong as when she is right. +It is the necessity of doing that, of having to be ready for emergencies, to think of +others as much as of your horse and of yourself, that give class teaching much of its +value."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Forward, ladies, forward," cries the other teacher. +"Remember that you are not to go to sleep! Now prepare to trot, and don't go too fast +at first. Remember always to change from one gait to another gently, for your own sake, +that you may not be thrown out of position; for your horse's, that he may not be startled, +and made unruly and ungraceful. He has nerves as well as you. Now, prepare to trot! Trot! +Shorten your reins, Miss Beauty! Shorten them!" and during the next minute or two, +while the class trots about a third of a mile, the poor beauty hears every command in the +manual addressed to her, and smilingly tries, but tries in vain to obey them; but in an +unhappy moment the teacher's glance falls on the society young lady and he bids her keep +her right shoulder back. "You told me that before," she says, rather more +crisply than is prescribed by any of he manuals of etiquette which constitute her sole +library.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Then why don't you do it?" is his answer. "Keep your +left shoulder forward," he says a moment later, whereupon the society young lady +turns to the right, and plants herself in the centre of the ring with as much dignity as +is possible, considering that her horse, not having been properly stopped, and feeling the +nervous movements of her hands, moves now one leg and now another, now draws his head down +pulling her forward on the pommel, and generally disturbs the beautiful repose of manner +upon which she prides herself.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"You are tired? No? Frightened? Your stirrup is too short? You +are not comfortable?" demands the teacher, riding up beside her. "Is there +anything which you would like to have me do?"</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"I don't like to be told to do two things at once," she +responds in a tone which should be felt by the thermometer at the other end of the ring.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"But you must do two things at once, and many more than two, on +horseback," he says; "when you are rested, take your place in the line."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"I think I will dismount," she says.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Very well," and before she has time to change her mind, a +bell is rung, a groom guides her horse to the mounting-stand, the master himself takes her +out of the saddle, courteously bids her be seated in the reception room and watch the +others, and she finds her little demonstration completely and effectually crushed, and, +what is worse, apparently without intention. Nobody appears to be aware that she has +intended a rebellion, although "whole Fourth of Julys seem to bile in her +veins."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Now," the teacher goes on, "we will turn to the +right, singly. Turn! Keep up, ladies! Keep up! Ride straight! To the right again! +Turn!" and back on the track, on the other side of the school, the leader in the +rear, the beginners in advance, you continue until two more turns to the right replace +you.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"That was all wrong," the teacher says, cheerfully. +"You did not ride straight, and you did not ride together. Your horses' heads should +be in line with one another, and then when you arrive at the track and turn to the right +again, your distance will be correct. Now we will have a little trot, and while you are +resting afterward, you shall try the turn again."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">The society young lady, watching the scene in sulkiness, notes +various faults in each rider and feels that the truly promising pupil of the class is +sitting in her chair at that moment; but she says nothing of the kind, contenting herself +by asking the master, with well-adjusted carelessness, if it would not be better for the +teacher to speak softly.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"It gives a positive shock to the nerves to be so vehemently +addressed," she says, with the air of a Hammond advising an ignorant nurse.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"That is what he has the intention to do," replies the +other. "It is necessary to arouse the rider's will and not let her sleep, but if it +were not, the teacher of riding, or anybody who has to give orders, orders, orders all day +long, must speak from an expanded chest, with his lungs full of air, or at night he will +be dumb. The young man behind the counter who has to entreat, persuade, to beg, to be +gentle, he may make his voice soft, but to speak with energy in a low tone is to strain +the vocal cords and to injure the lungs permanently. The opera singer finds to sing piano, +pianissimo more wearisome than to make herself heard above a Wagner orchestra. The orator, +with everybody still and listening with countenance intent, dares not speak softly, except +now and then for contrast. In the army we have three months' rest, and then we go to the +surgeon, and he examines our throats and lungs, and sees whether or not they need any +treatment. If you go to the camp of the military this summer, you will find the young +officers whom you know in the ball-room so soft and so gentle, not whispering to their +men, but shouting, and the best officer will have the loudest shout."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">The society young lady remembers the stories which she has heard her +father and uncles tell of that "officer's sore throat," which in 1861 and 1862, +caused so many ludicrous incidents among the volunteer soldiery, the energetic rill master +of one day being transformed into a voiceless pantomimist by the next, but, like Juliet +when she spoke, she says nothing, and now the teacher once more cries, "Turn!" +and then, suddenly, "Prepare to stop! Stop! Now look at your line! Now two of you +have your horses' heads even! And how many of you were riding straight?"</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">A dead silence gives a precisely correct answer, and again he cries, +"Forward!" A repetition of the movement is demanded, and is received with cries +of "This is not good, ladies! This is not good! We will try again by and by. Now, +prepare to change hands in file."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">The leader, turning at one corner of the school, makes a line almost +like a reversed "s" to the corner diagonally opposite, and comes back to the +track on the left hand, the others straggling after with about as much precision and grace +as Jill followed Jack down the hill; but, before they are fairly aware how very ill they +have performed the manoeuvre, they perceive that their teacher not only aimed at having +them learn how to turn to the left at each corner, but also at giving himself an +opportunity to make remarks about their feet and the position thereof, and at the end of +five minutes each girl feels as if she were a centipede, and you, Esmeralda, secretly +wonder whether something in the way of mucilage of thumb-tacks might not be used to keep +your own riding boots close to the saddle. "And don't let your left foot swing," +says the teacher in closing his exhortations; "hold it perfectly steady! Now change +hands in file, and come back to the track on the right again, and we will have a little +trot."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"And before you begin," lectures the master, "I will +tell you something. The faster you go, after once you know how to stay in the saddle, the +better for you, the better for your horse. You see the great steamer crossing the ocean +when under full headway, and she can turn how this way and now that, with the least little +touch of the rudder, but when she is creeping, creeping through the narrow channel, she +must have a strong, sure hand at the helm, and when she is coming up to her wharf, easy, +easy, she must swing in a wide circle. That is why my word to you is always 'Forward! +Forward!' and again, 'Forward!' There is a scientific reason underlying this, if you care +to know it. When you go fast, neither you nor the horse has time to feel the pressure of +the atmosphere from above, and that is why it seems as if you were flying, and he is happy +and exhilarated as well as you. You will see the tame horse in the paddock gallop about +for his pleasure, and the wild horse on the prairie will start and run for miles in mere +sportiveness. So, if you want to have pleasure on horseback, 'Forward!'"</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">While the little trot is going on, the society young lady improves +the shining hour by asking the master "if he does not think it cruel to make a poor +horse go just as fast as it can," to which he replies that the horse will desire to +go quite as long as she can or will, whereupon she withdraws into the cave of sulkiness +again, but brightens perceptibly as you dismount and join her.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"You do look so funny, Esmeralda," she begins. "Your +feet do seem positively immense, as the teacher said."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Pardon me; I said not that," gently interposes the +teacher; "only that they looked too big, bigger than they are, when she turns them +outward."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"And you do sit very much on one side," she continues to +Versatilia: "and your crimps are quite flat, my dear," to the beauty.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Never mind; they aren't fastened on with a safety pin," +retorts the beauty, plucking up spirit, unexpectedly.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"O, no! of course not," the wise fairy interposes, with a +little laugh. "You young ladies do not do such things, of course. But, do you know, I +heard of a lady who wore a switch into a riding-school ring one day, and it came off, and +the riding master had to keep it in his pocket until the end of the session."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Little does the wise fairy know of the society young lady's ways! +What she has determined to say, she declines to retain unsaid, and so she cries: "And +you do thrust your head forward so awkwardly, Nell!"</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"'We are ladies,'" quotes Nell, "and we can't answer +you," and the society young lady finds herself alone with the wise fairy, who is +suddenly very busy with her books, and after a moment, she renews her announcement that +she is not coming any more. "Well, I wouldn't," the wise fairy says, looking +thoughtfully at her. "You make the others unhappy, and that is not desirable, and you +will not be taught. I gave you fair warning that the master would be severe, but those who +come here to learn enjoy their lessons. Once in a great while there are ladies who do not +wish to be taught, but they find it out very soon, as you have."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"There is always a good reason for everything," the master +says gravely. "Now, I have seen many great men who could not learn to ride. There was +Gambetta. Nothing would make a fine rider out of that man! Why? Because for one moment +that his mind was on his horse, a hundred it was on something else. And Jules Verne! He +could not learn! And Emile Giardin! They had so many things to think about! Now, perhaps +it is so with this young lady. Society demands so much, one must do so many things, that +she cannot bend her mind to this one little art. It is unfortunate, but then she is not +the first!" And with a little salute he turns away, and the society young lady, much +crosser than she was before he invented this apology for her, comes into the dressing room +and—bids you farewell? Not at all! Says that she is sorry, and that she knows that she +can learn, and is going to try. "And I suppose now that nothing will make her +go!" Nell says, lugubriously, as you saunter homeward.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">You are still conscious of stiffness, Esmeralda? That is not a matter +for surprise or for anxiety. All your life you have been working for strength, for even +your dancing-school teacher was not one of those scientific ballet-masters who, like Carlo +Blasis, would have taught you that the strength of a muscle often deprives it of +flexibility and softness. You desire that your muscles should be rigid or relaxed at will. +Go and stand in front of your mirror, and let your head drop forward toward either +shoulder, causing your whole torso to become limp. Now hold the head erect, and try to +reproduce the feeling. The effect is awkward, and not to be practised in public, but the +exercise enables you to perceive for yourself when you are stiff about the shoulders and +waist. Now drop your head backward, and swing the body, not trying to control the head, +and persist until you can thoroughly relax the muscles of the neck, a work which you need +not expect to accomplish until after you have made many efforts. Now execute all your +movements for strengthening the muscles, very slowly and lightly, using as little force as +possible. After you can do this fairly well, begin by executing them quickly and forcibly, +then gradually retard them, and make them more gently, until you glide at last into +perfect repose. This will take time, but the good results will appear not only in your +riding, but also in your walking and in your dancing. You and Nell might practise these +Delsarte exercises together, for no especial dress is needed for them, and companionship +will remove the danger of the dulness which, it must be admitted, sometimes besets the +amateur, unsustained by the artist's patient energy. Before you take another class lesson, +you may have an exercise ride, in which to practise what you have learned. "Tried to +learn!" do you say? Well, really, Esmeralda, one begins to have hopes of you!</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal"> </p> +<a name="10"></a> +<br> +<br> +<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">X.</b></p> + +<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>—Ye +couldn't have made him a rider,<br> +<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>And then ye know, boys will be boys, and +hosses,<br> +<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> + </span>— +well, hosses is hosses!<br> +<i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> + </span>Harte</i>.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal"> </p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">When you and Nell go to take your exercise ride, Esmeralda, you must +assume the air of having ridden before you were able to walk, and of being so replete with +equestrian knowledge that the "acquisition of another detail would cause immediate +dissolution," as the Normal college girl said when asked if she knew how to teach. +You must insist on having a certain horse, no matter ho much inconvenience it may create, +and, if possible, you should order him twenty-four hours in advance, stipulating that +nobody shall mount him in the interval, and, while waiting for him to be brought from the +stable, you should proclaim that he is a wonderfully spirited, not to say vicious, +creature, but that you are not in the smallest degree afraid of him. You should pick up +your reins with easy grace, and having twisted them into a hopeless snarl, should explain +to any spectator who may presume to smile that one "very soon forgets the little +things, you know, but they will come back in a little while."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Having started, you must choose between steadily trotting or rapidly +cantering, absolutely regardless of the rights or wishes of any one else, or else you must +hold your horse to a spiritless crawl, carefully keeping him in such a position as to +prevent anybody else from outspeeding you. If you were a man, you would feel it incumbent +on you to entreat your master to permit you to change horses with him, and would give him +certain valuable information, derived from quarters vaguely specified as "a person +who knows," or "a man who rides a great deal." meaning somebody who is in +the saddle twenty times a year, and duly pays his livery stable bill for the privilege, +and you would confide in some other exercise rider, if possible, in the hearing of seven +or eight pupils, that your master was not much of a rider after all, that the +"natural rider is best," and you would insinuate that to observe perfection it +was only necessary to look at you. If, in addition to this, you could intimate to any +worried or impatient pupils that they had not been properly taught, you would make +yourself generally beloved, and these are the ways of the casual exercise rider, male and +female. But you, Esmeralda, are slightly unfitted for the perfect assumption of this part +by knowing how certain things ought to be done, although you cannot do them, and alas! you +are not yet adapted to the humbler but prettier character of the real exercise rider, who +is thoroughly taught, and whose every movement is a pleasure to behold.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">There are many such women and a few men who prefer the ring to the +road for various reasons, and from them you may learn much, both by observation and from +the hints which many of them will give you if they find that you are anxious to learn, and +that you are really nothing more pretentious than a solitary student. So into the saddle +you go, and you and Nell begin to walk about in company. "In company," indeed, +for about half a round, and then you begin to fall behind. Touching your Abdallah lightly +with whip and heel starts him into a trot and coming up beside Nell you start off her +Arab, and both horses are rather astonished to be checked. What do these girls want, they +think, and when you fall behind again, it takes too strokes of the whip to urge Abdallah +forward, Arab is unmoved by your passing him, and you find the breadth of the ring +dividing you and Nell. You pause, she turns to the right, crosses the space between you, +turns again and is by your side, and now both of you begin to see what you must do. Nell, +who is riding on the inside, that is to say on the included square, must check her horse +very slightly after turning each corner, and you must hasten yours a little before turning, +and a little after, so as to give her sufficient space to turn, and, at the same time, +to keep up with her. You, being on her left, must be very careful every moment to have a +firm hold of your left rein, so as to keep away from her feet, and she must keep especial +watch of her right rein in order to guard herself.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">After each of you has learned her part pretty well, you should +exchange places and try again, and then have a round or two of trotting, keeping your +horses' heads in line. You will find both of them very tractable to this discipline, +because accustomed to having your master's horse keep pace with them, and because they +often go in pairs at the music rides, and you must not expect that an ordinary livery +stable horse would be as easily managed. It is rather fashionable to sneer at the +riding-school horse as too mild for the use of a good rider, and very likely, while you +and Nell are patiently trying your little experiment, you will hear a youth with very +evident straps on his trousers, superciliously requesting to have "something +spirited" brought in from the stable for him.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Not one of your school horses, taught to tramp a treadmill +round, but a regular flyer," he explains.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Is he a very good rider?" you ask your master. "Last +time he was hear I had to take him off Abdallah," he says sadly, and then he goes to +the mounting-stand to deny "the regular flyer," and to tender instead, "an +animal that we don't give to everybody, William." Enter "William," +otherwise Billy Buttons, whom the gentleman covetous of a flyer soon finds to be enough +for him to manage, because William, although accustomed to riders awkward through +weakness, is not used to the manners of what is called the "three-legged +trotter"; that is to say, the man whose unbent arms and tightened reins make a +straight line from his shoulders to his horse's mouth, while his whole weight is thrown +upon the reins by a backward inclination of his body.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">If you would like to know how Billy feels about it, Esmeralda, bend +your chin toward your throat, and imagine a bar of iron placed across your tongue and +pulling your head upward. It would hurt you, but you could raise your head and still go +forward, making wild gestures with your hands, kicking, perhaps, in a ladylike manner, as +Gail Hamilton kicked Halicarnassus, but by no means stopping. Now suppose that bar of iron +drawn backward by reins passing one on each side of your shoulders and held firmly between +your scapulae; you could not go forward without almost breaking your neck, could you? No +more could Billy, if his rider would let out his reins, bend his elbows, and hold his +hands low, almost touching his saddle, but, as it is, he goes on, and if he should rear by +and by, and if his rider should slide off, be not alarmed. The three-legged trotter is not +the kind of horseman to cling to his reins, and he will not be dragged, and Billy is too +good-tempered not to stop the moment he has rid himself of his tormentor. But while he is +still on Billy's back, and flattering himself that he is doing wonders in subjugating the +"horse that we don't give to everybody," do you and Nell go to the centre of the +ring and see if you can stop properly. Pretty well done, but wait a moment before trying +it again, for it is not pleasant to a horse. Sit still a few minutes, and then try and see +if you can back your horse a step or two.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">In order to do this, it is not enough to sit up straight and to say +"back," or even to say "bake," which, according to certain +"natural riders," is the secret of having the movement executed properly. You +must draw yourself up and lean backward, touching your horse both with your foot and with +your whip, in order that he may stand squarely, and you must raise your wrists a little, +and the same time turning them inward. The horse will take a step, you must instantly sit +up straight, lower your hands, and then repeat the movement until he has backed far +enough. Four steps will be quite as many as you should try when working thus by yourself, +because you do not wish to form any bad habits, and your master will probably find much to +criticise in your way of executing the movement. The most that you can do for yourself is +to be sure that Abdallah makes but one step for each of your demands. If he make two, +lower your hands, and make him go forward, for a horse that backs unbidden is always +troublesome and may sometimes be dangerous.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Just watch that man on Billy Buttons," says your master, +coming up to you, "and make up your minds never to do anything that you see him do. +And look at those two ladies who are mounting now, and see how well it is possible to ride +without being taught in school, provided one rides enough. They cannot trot a rod, but +they have often been in the saddle half a day at a time in Spanish America, whence they +come, and they can 'lope,' as they call it, for hours without drawing rein. They sit +almost, but not quite straight, and they have strength enough in their hands to control +any of our horses, although they complain that these English bits are poor things compared +to the Spanish bit. You see, they can stay on, although they cannot ride +scientifically."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"And isn't that best?" asked Nell.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"It is better," corrects the master. "The very best is +to stay on because one rides scientifically, and that is what I hope that you two will do +by and by. There's that girl who always brings in bags of groceries for her horse! Apples +this time!"</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Isn't it a good thing to give a horse a tidbit of some kind +after a ride?" asked Nell.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"'Good,' if it be your own horse, but not good in a +riding-school. It tends to make the horses impatient for the end of a ride, and sometimes +makes them jealous of one another at the mounting-stand, and keeps them there so long as +to inconvenience others who wish to dismount. Besides, careless pupils, like that girl, +have a way of tossing a paper bag into the ring after the horse has emptied it, and +although we always pick it up as soon as possible, it may cause another horse to shy. A +dropped handkerchief is also dangerous, for a horse is a suspicious creature and fears +anything novel as a woman dreads a mouse."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">What is the trouble on the mounting-stand? Nothing, except that a +tearful little girl wants "her dear Daisy; she never rides anything else, and she +hates Clifton, and does not like Rex and Jewel canters, and she wants Da-a-isy!"</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"But is it not better for you to change horses now and then, and +Daisy is not fit to be in the ring to-day," says your master. "Jewel is very +easy and good-tempered. Will you have him?"</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"No, I'll have Abdallah."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"A lady is riding him."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Well, I want him."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">It is against the rules for your master to suggest such a thing to +you, Esmeralda, but suppose you go up to the mounting-stand and offer to take Jewel +yourself and let her have Abdallah. You do it; your master puts you on Jewel, and sends +the wilful little girl away on Abdallah, and then comes up to you and Nell, thanks you, +and says, "It was very good of you, but she must learn some day to ride everything, +and I shall tell her so, and next time!"</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">He looks capable of giving her Hector, Irish Hector, who is wilful as +the wind, but in reward for your goodness he bestows a little warning about your whips +upon Nell, who has a fancy for carrying hers slantwise across her body, so that both ends +show from the back, and the whole whip is quite useless as far as the horse is concerned, +although picturesque enough with its loop of bright ribbon.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"It makes one think of a circus picture," he says; +"and, Miss Esmeralda, don't hold your whip with the lash pointing outward, to tickle +Miss Nell's horse, and to make you look like an American Mr. Briggs 'going to take a run +with the Myopias, don't you know.' Isn't this a pretty horse?"</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Well, I don't know," you say frankly; "I'm no judge. +I don't know anything about a horse."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">For once your master loses his self-possession, and stares +unreservedly. "Child," he says, "I never, never before saw anybody in this +ring who didn't know all about a horse."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Well, but I really don't, you know."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"No, but nobody ever says so. Now just hear this new pupil +instruct me."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">The new pupil, who thinks a riding habit should be worn over two or +three skirts, and is consequently sitting with the aerial elegance of a feather bed, is +riding with her snaffle rein, the curb tied on her horse's neck, and is clasping it by the +centre, allowing the rest to hang loose, so that Clifton, supposing that she means to give +him liberty to browse, is looking for grass among the tan. Not finding it, he snorts +occasionally, whereupon she calls him "poor thing," and tells him that "it +is a warm day, and that he should rest, so he should!"</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Your reins are too long," says your master.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Do you mean that they are too long, or that I am holding them +so as to make them too long," she inquires, in a precise manner.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"They are right enough. Our saddlers know their business. But +you are holding them so that you might as well have none. Shorten them, and make him bring +his head up in its proper place."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"But I think it's cruel to treat him so, when he's tired, poor +thing! I always hold my reins in the middle when I'm driving, and my horse goes straight +enough. This one seems dizzy. He goes round and round."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"He wouldn't if he were in harness with two shafts to keep his +head straight"—</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"But then why wouldn't it be a good thing to have some kind of a +light shaft for a beginner's horse?"</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"It would be a neat addition to a side saddle," says your +master, "but shorten your reins. Take one in each hand. Leave about eight inches of +rein between your hands. There!<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>See. Now Guide +your horse."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">He leaves her, in order that he may enjoy the idea of the side saddle +with shafts, and she promptly resumes her old attitude which she feels is elegant, and +when Clifton wanders up beside Abdallah, she sweetly asks Nell, "Is this your first +lesson? Do you think this horse is good? The master wants me to pull on my reins, but I +think it is inhuman, and I won't, and"—but Clifton strays out of hearing, and your +arouse yourselves to remember that you are having more fun than work.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">There is plenty of room in the ring, now, so you change hands, and +circle to the left, first walking and then trotting, slowly at first, and then rapidly, +finding to your pleasant surprise, that, just as you begin to think that you can go no +further, you are suddenly endowed with new strength and can make two more rounds. "A +good half mile," your master says, approvingly, as you fall into a walk and pass him, +and then you do a volte or two, and one little round at a canter, and then walk five +minutes, and dismount to find the rider of the alleged William assuring John, the head +groom, that redoubtable animal needs "taking down."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Shall ride him with spurs next time," he says. "I can +manage him, but he would be too much for most men," and away he goes and a +flute-voiced little boy of eight mounts William, retransformed into Billy Buttons, and +guides him like a lamb, and you escape up stairs to laugh. But you have no time for this +before the merciful young woman enters to say that she is going to another school, where +she can do as she pleases and have better horses, too, and the more you and Nell assure +her that there is no school in which she can learn without obedience, and that her horse +was too good, if anything, the more determined she becomes, and soon you wisely desist.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">As she departs, "Oh, dear," you say, "I thought there +was nothing but fun at riding-school, and just see all these queer folks."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"My dear," says philosophic Nell, "they ar part of the +fun. And we are fun to the old riders; and we are all fun to our master."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Here you find yourselves enjoying a bit of fun from which your master +is shut out, for three or four girls come up from the ring together, and, not seeing you, +hidden behind your screens, two, in whom you and Nell have already recognized saleswomen +from whom you have more than once bought laces, begin to talk to overawe the others.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"My deah," says one, "now I think of it, I weally +don't like the setting of these diamonds that you had given you last night. It's too +heavy, don't you think?"</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">The other replies in a tone which would cheat a man, but in which you +instantly detect an accent of surprise and a determination to play up to her partner as +well as possible, that she "liked it very well."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"I should have them reset," says the former speaker. +"Like mine, you know; light and airy. Deah me, I usedn't to care for diamonds, and +now I'm puffectly infatooated with them, don't you know! My!" she screams, catching +sight of a church clock, and, relapsing into her everyday speech: "Half-past four! +And I am due at"—[An awkward pause.] "I promised to return at four!"</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">There is no more talk about diamonds, but a hurried scramble to +dress, an a precipitate departure, after which one of the other ladies is heard to say +very distinctly: "I remember that girl as a pupil when I was teaching in a public +school, and I know all about her. Salary, four dollars a week. Diamonds!"</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"She registered at the desk as Mrs. Something," rejoins the +other. "She only came in for one ride, and so they gave her a horse without looking +up her reference, but one of the masters knew her real name. Poor little goosey! She has +simply spoiled her chance of ever becoming a regular pupil, no matter how much she may +desire it. No riding master will give lessons to a person who behaves so. He would lose +more than he gained by it, no matter how long she took lessons. And they know everybody in +a riding-school, although they won't gossip. I'd as soon try to cheat a Pinkerton +agency."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"I know one thing," Nell says, as you walk homeward: +"I'm going to take an exercise ride between every two lessons, and I'm going to ride +a new horse every time, if I can get him, and I'm going to do what I'm told, and I shall +not stop trotting at the next lesson, even if I feel as if I should drop out of the +saddle. I've learned so much from an exercise ride."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal"> </p> +<a name="11"></a> +<br> +<br> +<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">XI.</b></p> + +<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Ride as though you were +flying.<br> +<i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> + </span>Mrs. Norton.</i></p> + +<p class="MsoNormal"> </p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Cross," Esmeralda? Why? Because having had seven lessons +of various sorts, and two rides, you do not feel yourself to be a brilliant horsewoman? +Because you cannot trot more than half a mile, and because you cannot flatter yourself +that it would be prudent for you to imitate your favorite English heroines, and to order +your horse brought around to the hall door for a solitary morning canter? And you really +think that you do well to be angry, and that, had your teacher been as discreet and as +entirely admirable as you feel yourself to be, you would be more skilful and better +informed?</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Very well, continue to think so, but pray do not flatter yourself +that your mental attitude has the very smallest fragment of an original line, curve or +angle. Thus, and not otherwise, do all youthful equestrians feel, excepting those +doubly-dyed in conceit, who fancy that they have mastered a whole art in less than twelve +hours. You certainly are not a good rider, and yet you have received instruction on almost +every point in regard to which you would need to know anything in an ordinary ride on a +good road. You have not yet been taught every one of these things, certainly, for she who +has been really taught a physical or mental feat, can execute it at will, but you have +been partly instructed, and it is yours to see that the instruction is not wasted, by not +being either repeated, or faithfully reduced to practice. Remember clever Mrs. Wesley's +answer to the unwise person who said in reproof, "You have told that thing to that +child thirty times." "Had I told it but twenty-nine," replied the +indomitable Susanna, "they had been wasted." What you need now is practice, +preferably in the ring with a teacher, but if you cannot afford that, without a teacher, +and road rides whenever you can have them on a safe horse, taken from a school stable, if +possible, with companions like yourself, intent upon study and enjoyment, not upon +displaying their habits, or, if they be men, the airs of their horses, and the correctness +of their equipment, or upon racing.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">As for the solitary canter, when the kindly Fates shall endow that +respectable American sovereign, your father, with a park somewhat bigger than the +seventy-five square feet of ground inclosed by an iron railing before his present palace, +it will be time enough to think about that; but you can no more venture upon a public road +alone than an English lady could, and indeed, your risk in doing so would be even greater +than hers. Why? Because in rural England all men and boys, even the poorest and the +humblest, seem to know instinctively how a horse should be equipped. True, a Wordsworth or +a Coleridge did hesitate for hours over the problem of adjusting a horse collar, but +Johnny Ragamuffin, from the slums, or Jerry Hickathrift, of some shire with the most +uncouth of dialects, can adjust a slipping saddle, or, in a hand's turn, can remove a +stone which is torturing a hoof.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Not so your American wayfarer, city bred or country grown; it will be +wonderful if he can lengthen a stirrup leather, ad, before allowing such an one to tighten +a girth for you, you would better alight and take shelter behind a tree, and a good large +tree, because he may drive your horse half frantic by his well-meant unskilfulness. +Besides, Mrs. Grundy very severely frowns on the woman who rides alone, and there is no +appeal from Mrs. Grundy's wisdom. Sneer at her, deride her, try, if you will, to undermine +her authority, but obey her commands and yield to her judgment if you would have the +respect of men, and, what is of more consequence, the fair speech of women. And so, +Esmeralda, as you really have no cause for repining, go away to your class lesson, which +has a double interest for you and Nell, because of the wicked pleasure which you derive +from hearing the master quietly crush the society young lady with unanswerable logic.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">You have seen him with a class of disobedient, well-bred little +girls, and know how persuasive he can be to a child who is really frightened. You have +seen him surrounded by a class of eager small goys, and beset with a clamorous shout of, +"Plea-ease let us mount from the ground." You have heard his peremptory +"No," and then, as they turned away discomfited, have noted how kindly was his +"I will tell you why, my dear boys. It is because your legs are too short. Wait until +you are tall, then you shall mount." You know that when Versatilia, having attended a +party the previous evening and arisen at five o'clock to practise Chopin, and then worked +an hour at gymnastics, could not, from pure weariness, manage her horse, how swift was his +bound across the ring, and how carefully he lifted her from the saddle, and gave her over +to the ministrations of the wise fairy. You know that any teacher must extract respect +from his scholars, and you detect method in all the little sallies which almost drive the +society young lady to madness, but this morning it is your turn.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">You do, one after the other, all the things against which you have +been warned, and, when corrected, you look so very dismal and discouraged that the Scotch +teacher comes quietly to your side and rides with you, and, feeling that he will prevent +your horse from doing anything dangerous, you begin to mend your ways, when suddenly you +hear the master proclaim in a voice which, to your horrified ears, seems audible to the +whole universe: "Ah, Miss Esmeralda! she cannot ride, she cannot do her best, unless +she has a gentleman beside her." In fancy's eye you seem to see yourself blushing for +that criticism during the remainder of your allotted days, and you almost hope that they +will be few. You know that every other girl in the class will repeat it to other girls, +and even to men, and possibly even to Theodore, and that you will never be allowed to +forget it. Cannot ride or do your best without a gentleman, indeed! You could do very well +without one gentleman whom you know, you think vengefully, and then you turn to the kindly +Scotch teacher, and, with true feminine justice, endeavor to punish him for another's +misdeeds by telling him that, if he please, you would prefer to ride alone. As he reins +back, you feel a decided sinking of the heart and again become conscious that you are +oddly incapable of doing anything properly, and then, suddenly, it flashes upon you that +the master was right in his judgment, and you fly into a small fury of determination to +show him that you can exist "without a gentleman." Down go your hands, you +straighten your shoulders, adjust yourself to a nicety, think of yourself and of your +horse with all the intensity of which you are capable, and make two or three rounds +without reproof.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Now," says the teacher, "we will try a rather longer +trot than usual, and when any lady is tired she may go to the centre of the ring. Prepare +to trot! Trot!"</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">The leader's eyes sparkle with delight as she allows her good horse, +after a round or two, to take his own speed, the teacher continues his usual fire of +truthful comments as to shoulders, hands and reins, and one after another, the girls leave +the track, and only the leader and you remain, she, calm and cool as an iceberg, you, +flushed, and compelled to correct your position at almost every stride of your horse, +sometimes obliged to sit close for half a round, but with your whole Yankee soul set upon +trotting until your master bids you cease. Can you believe your ears?</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Brava, Miss Esmeralda!" shouts the master. "Go in +again. That is the way. Ah, go in again! That is the way the rider is made! Again! Ah, +brava!"</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Prepare to whoa! Whoa!" says the teacher, and both he and +your banished cavalier congratulate you, and it dawns upon you that the society young lady +is not the only person whom the master understands, and is able to manage. However, you +are grateful, and even pluck up courage to salute him when next you pass him; but alas! +that does not soften his heart so thoroughly that he does not warningly ejaculate, +"Right foot," and then comes poor Nell's turn. She, reared in a select private +school for young ladies, and having no idea of proper discipline, ventures to explain the +cause of some one of her misdeeds, instead of correcting it in silence. She does it +courteously, but is met with, "Ah-h-h! Miss Esmeralda, you know Miss Nell. Is it not +with her on foot as it is on horseback? Does she not argue?"</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">You shake your head severely and loyally, but brave Nell speaks out +frankly, "Yes, sir; I do. But I won't again."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"I would have liked to ride straight at him," she confides +to you afterwards, "but he was right. Still, it is rather astounding to hear the +truth sometimes."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">And now, for the first time around, you are allowed to ride in pairs, +and the word "interval," meaning the space between two horses moving in parallel +lines, is introduced, and you and Nell, who are together, congratulate yourselves on +having in your exercise ride learned something of the manner in which the interval may be +preserved exactly, for it is a greater trouble to the others than that +"distance" which you have been told a thousand times to "keep." You +have but very little of this practice, however, before you are again formed in file, and +directed to "Prepare to volte singly!"</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">When this is done perfectly, it is a very pretty manoeuvre, and, the +pupils returning to their places at the same movement, the column continues on its way +with its distances perfectly preserved, but as no two of your class make circles of the +same size, or move at similar rates of speed, your small procession finds itself in +hopeless disorder, and in trying to rearrange yourselves, each one of you discovers that +she has yet something to learn about turning. However, after a little trot and the usual +closing walk, the lesson ends, and you retire from the ring, with the exception of Nell, +who, having been taught by an amateur to leap in a more or less unscientific manner, has +begged the master to give her "one little lesson," a proposition to which he has +consented.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">The hurdle is brought out, placed half-way down one of the long sides +of the school, and Nell walks her horse quietly down the other, turns him again as she +comes on the second long side, shakes her reins lightly, putting him to a canter, and is +over—"beautifully," as you say to yourself, as you watch her enviously.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"You did not fall off," the master comments, coiling the +lash of the long whip with which he has stood beside the hurdle during Miss Nell's +performance, "but you did not guard yourself against falling when you went up, and +had you had some horses, you might have come down before he did, although that is not so +easy for a lady as it is for a man. When you start for a leap, you must draw your right +foot well back, so as to clasp the pommel with your knee, and just as the horse stops to +spring upward, you must lean back and lift both hands a little, and then, when he springs, +straighten yourself, feel proud and haughty, if you can, and, as he comes down, lean back +once more and raise your hands again, because your horse will drop on his fore legs, and +you desire him to lift them, that he may go forward before you do. You should practise +this, counting one, as you lean backward, drawing but not turning the hands backward and +upward; two, as you straighten yourself wit the hands down, and three, as you repeat the +first movement; and, except in making a water jump, or some other very long leap, the +'two' will be the shortest beat, as it is in the waltz. And, although you must use some +strength in raising your hands, you must not raise them too high, and you must not lean +your head forward or draw your elbows back. A jockey may, when riding in a steeplechase +for money, but he will be angry with himself for having to do it, and a lady must not. I +would rather that you did not leap again to-day, because what I told you will only confuse +you until you have time to think it over and to practise it by yourself in a chair. And I +would rather that you did not leap again in your own way, until you have let me see you do +it once or twice more, at least."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"You did not have to whip my horse to make him leap," Nell +says,</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"The whip was not to strike him, but to show him what was ready +for him if he refused," says the master. "One must never permit a horse to +refuse without punishing bum, for otherwise he may repeat the fault when mounted by a poor +rider, and a dangerous accident may follow. One must never brutalize a horse—indeed, no +one but a brute does—but one must rule him."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">By this time he has taken Nell from her saddle and is in the +reception room where he finds you grouped and gazing at him in a manner rather trying even +to his soldierly gravity, and decidedly amusing to the wise fairy, who glances at him with +a laugh and betakes herself to her own little nest.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"My young ladies," he says. "I will show you one +little leap, not high, you know, but a little leap sitting on a side saddle," and, +going out, he takes Nell's horse, and in a minute you see him sailing through the air, +light as a bird, and without any of the encouraging shouts used by some horsemen. It is +only a little leap, but it impresses your illogical minds as no skilfulness in the voltes +and no <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">haute ecole</i> airs could do, for leaping is +the crowning accomplishment of riding in the eyes of all your male friends except the +cavalryman, and when he returns to the reception room, you linger in the hope of a little +lecture, and you are not disappointed.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"My young ladies," he says, "at the point at which you +are in the equestrian art, what you should do is to keep doing what you know, over and +over again, no matter if you do it wrong. Keep doing and doing, and by and by you will do +it right. I have tried that plan of perfecting each step before undertaking another, but +it is of no use with American ladies. You will not do things at all, unless you can do +them well, you say. That is to say if you were to go to a ball, and were to say, 'No, I +have taken lessons, I have danced in school, but I am afraid I cannot do so well as some +others. I will not dance here.' That would not be the way to do. Dance, and again dance, +and if you make a little mistake, dance again! The mistake is of the past; it is not +matter for troubling; dance again, and do not make it again. And so of riding, ride, and +again ride! Try all ways. Take your foot out of the stirrup sometimes, and slip it back +again without stopping your horse, and when you can do it at the walk, do it at the trot, +and keep rising! And learn not to be afraid to keep trotting after you are a little tired. +Keep trotting! Keep trotting! Then you will know real pleasure, and you will not hurt your +horses, as you will if you pull them up just as they begin to enjoy the pace. And +then"—looking very hard at nothing at all, and not at you, Esmeralda, as your +guilty soul fancies—"and then, gentlemen will not be afraid to ride with you for +fear of spoiling their horses by checking them too often."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">And with this he goes away, and on! Esmeralda, does not the society +young lady make life pleasant for you and Nell in the dressing-room, until the beauty +attracts general attention by stating that she has had an hour of torment!</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Perhaps you have not noticed that most of these saddles are +buckskin," she continues; "I did not, until I found myself slipping about on +mine to day as if it were glazed, and lo! It was pigskin, and that made the difference. I +would not have it changed, because the Texan is always sneering at English pigskin, and I +wanted to learn to ride on it; but, until the last quarter of the hour, I expected to slip +off. I rather think I should have," she adds, "only just as I was ready to slip +off on one side, something would occur to make me slip to the other. I shall not be afraid +of pigskin again, ad you would better try it, every one of you. Suppose you should get a +horse from a livery stable some day with one of those slippery saddles!"</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"I am thinking of buying a horse," says the society young +lad; "but the master says that I do not know enough to ride a beast that has been +really trained. Fancy that!"</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"And all the authorities agree with him," says Versatilia, +who has accumulated a small library of books on equestrianism since she began to take +lessons. "Your horse ought not to know much more than you do—for if he do, you +will find him perfectly unmanageable."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Here you and Nell flee on the wings of discretion. The daring of the +girl! To tell the society young lady that a horse may know more than she does!</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal"> </p> +<a name="12"></a> +<br> +<br> +<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">XII.</b></p> + +<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Costly thy habit as thy +purse can buy.<br> +<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span><i +style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Shakespeare.</i></p> + +<p class="MsoNormal"> </p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">And now, Esmeralda, having determined to put your master's advice +into practice and to "keep riding," you think that you must have a habit in +order to be ready to take to the road whenever you have an opportunity, and to be able to +accompany Theodore, should he desire to repeat your music-ride? And you would like to know +just what it will cost, and everything about it? And first, what color can you have?</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">You "can" have any color, Esmeralda, and you +"can" have any material, for that matter. Queen Guinevere wore grass green silk, +and if her skirt were as long as those worn by Matilda of Flanders, Norman William's wife, +centuries after, her women must have spent several hours daily in mending it, unless she +had a new habit for every ride, or unless the English forest roads were wider than they +are to-day. But all the ladies of Arthur's court seem to have ridden in their ordinary +dress. Enid, for instance, was arrayed in the faded silk which had been her house-dress +and waking-dress in girlhood, when she performed her little feat of guiding six +armor-laden horses. Queen Elizabeth and Mary Stuart seem to have liked velvet, either +green or black, and to have adorned it with gold lace, and both probably took their +fashions form France; the young woman in the Scotch ballad was "all in +cramoisie"; Kate Peyton wore scarlet broadcloth, but secretly longed for purple, +having been told by a rival, who had probably found her too pretty for scarlet, that green +or purple was "her color."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">There are crimson velvet and dark blue velvet and Lincoln green +velvet habits without end in fiction, and in the records of English royal wardrobes, but, +beautiful as velvet is, and exquisitely becoming as it would be, you would better not +indulge your artistic taste by wearing it. It would cost almost three times as much as +cloth; it would be nearly impossible to make a well fitting modern skirt of it, and it +would be worn into ugliness by a very few hours of trotting. Be thankful, therefore, that +fashion says that woollen cloth is the most costly material that may be used.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">In India, during the last two or three seasons, Englishwomen have +worn London-made habits of very light stuffs, mohairs and fine Bradford woollens, and +there is no reason why any American woman should not do the same. In Hyde Park, for three +summers, in those early morning hours when some of the best riders go, attended by a +groom, to enjoy something more lively than the afternoon parade, skirts of light tweed and +covert coats of the same material worn over white silk shirts, with linen collars and a +man's tie, have made their wearers look cool and comfortable, and duck covert jackets, +with ordinary woollen skirts have had a similar effect, but American women have rather +hesitated as to adopting these fashions, lest some one, beholding, should say that they +were not correct. Thus did they once think that they must wear bonnets with strings in +church, no matter what remonstrance was made by the thermometer, or how surely they were +deafened to psalm and sermon by longing for the cool, comfortable hats, which certain wise +persons had decided were too frivolous for the sanctuary.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">New York girls have worn white cloth habits at Lenox without shocking +the moral sense of the inhabitants, but Lenox, during the season, probably contains a +smaller percentage of simpletons than any village in the United States, and some daring +Boston girls have appeared this year in cool and elegant habits of shepherd's check, and +have pleased every good judge who has seen them. If quite sure that you have as much +common sense and independence as these young ladies, imitate them, but if not, wear the +regulation close, dark cloth habit throughout the year, be uncomfortable, and lose half +the benefit of your summer rides from becoming overheated, to say nothing of being unable +to "keep trotting" as long as you could if suitably clothed for exercise. But +might you not, if your habit were thin, catch cold while your horse was walking? You might +if you tried, but probably you would not be in a state so susceptible to that disaster as +you would if heavily dressed.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">There is little danger that the temperature will change so much +during a three hours' ride that you cannot keep yourself sufficiently warm for comfort and +for safety, and if you start for a long excursion, you must use your common sense. The +best and least expensive way of solving the difficulty is to have an ordinary habit, with +the waist and skirt separate, and to wear a lighter coat, with a habit shirt, or with a +habit shirt and waistcoat, whenever something lighter is desirable. This plan gives three +changes of dress, which should be enough for any reasonable girl.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">But still, you do not know what color you can wear? Black is suitable +for all hours and all places, even for an English fox hunt, although the addition of a +scarlet waistcoat, just visible at the throat and below the waist, is desirable for the +field. Dark blue, dark green, dark brown are suitable for most occasions, and a riding +master whose experience has made him acquainted with the dress worn in the principal +European capitals, declares his preference for gray with a white waistcoat.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Among the habits shown by English tailors at the French exhibition of +189, was one of blue gray, and a Paris tailor displayed a tan-colored habit made with a +coat and waistcoat revealing a white shirt front. London women are now wearing white +waistcoats and white ties in the Park, both tie and waistcoat as stiff and masculine as +possible.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">This affectation of adopting men's dress, when riding, is +comparatively modern. Sir Walter gives the date in "Rob Roy," when Mr. Francis +sees Diana for the first time and notices that she wears a coat, vest and hat resembling +those of a man, "a mode introduced during my absence in France," he says, +"and perfectly new to me." But this coat had the collar and wide sharply pointed +lapels and deep cuffs now known as "directoire," and its skirts were full, and +so long that they touched the right side of the saddle, and skirts, lapels, collar and +cuffs were trimmed with gold braid almost an inch wide. The waistcoat, the vest, as Sir +Walter calls it, not knowing the risk that he ran in this half century of being considered +as speaking American, had a smaller, but similar, collar and lapels, work outside those of +the coat, and the "man's tie" was of soft white muslin, and a muslin sleeve and +ruffles were visible at the wrists. The hat was very broad brimmed, and was worn set back +from the forehead, and bent into coquettish curves, and altogether the fair Diana might +depend upon having a very long following of astonished gazers if she should ride down +Beacon Street or appear in Central Park to-day.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Your habit shall not be like hers, Esmeralda, but shall have a plain +waist, made as long as you can possibly wear it while sitting, slightly pointed in front +and curving upward at the side to a point about half an inch below that where the belt of +your skirt fastens, and having a very small and perfectly flat postilion, or the new +English round back. Elizabeth of Austria may wear a princess habit, if it please her, but +would you, Esmeralda, be prepared, in order to have your habit fit properly, to postpone +buttoning it until after you were placed in the saddle, as she was accustomed to do in the +happy days when she could forget her imperial state in her long wild gallops across the +beautiful Irish hunting counties? The sleeves shall not be so tight that you can feel +them, nor shall the armholes be so close as to prevent you from clasping your hands above +your head with your arms extended at full length, and the waist shall be loose. If you go +to a tailor, Esmeralda, prepare yourself to make a firm stand on this point. Warn him, in +as few words as possible, that you will not take the habit out of his shop unless it suits +you, and do not allow yourself to be overawed by the list of his patrons, all of whom +"wear their habits far tighter, ma'am." Unless you can draw a full, deep breath +with your habit buttoned, you cannot do yourself or your teacher any credit in trotting, +and you will sometimes find yourself compelled to give your escort the appearance of being +discourteous by drawing rein suddenly, leaving him, unwarned, to trot on, apparently +disregarding your plight. Both your horse and his will resent your action, and unless he +resemble both Moses and Job more strongly than most Americans, he will have a few words to +say in regard to it, after you have repeated it once or twice. And, lastly, Esmeralda, no +riding master with any sense of duty will allow you to wear such a habit in his presence +without telling you his opinion of it, and stating his reasons for objecting to it, and +you best know whether or not a little lecture of that sort will be agreeable, especially +if delivered in the presence of other women. Warn your tailor of your determination, then, +and if his devotion to his ideal should compel him to decline your patronage, go to +another, until you find one who will be content not to transform you into the likeness of +a wooden doll. Women are not made to advertise tailors, whatever the tailors may think.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">What must you pay for your habit? You may pay three hundred dollars, +if you like, although that price is seldom charged, unless to customers who seem desirous +of paying if, but the usual scale runs downward from one hundred and fifty dollars. This +includes cloth and all other materials, and finish as perfect within as without, and is +not dear, considering the retail price of cloth, the careful making, and the touch of +style which only practised hands can give. The heavy meltons worn for hunting habits in +England cost seven dollars a yard; English tweeds which have come into vogue during the +last few years in London, cost six dollars, broadcloth five dollars; rough, uncut +cheviots, about six dollars; and shepherds' checks, single width, about two dollars and a +half. For waistcoats, duck costs two dollars and a quarter a yard, and fancy flannels and +Tattersall checks anywhere from one dollar and a half to two dollars. The heavy cloths are +the most economical in the end, because they do not wear out where the skirt is stretched +over the pommel, the point at which a light material is very soon in tatters.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">The small, flat buttons cost twenty-five cents a dozen; the fine +black sateen used for linings may be bought for thirty-five cents a yard, and canvas for +interlinings for twenty-five cents. With these figures you may easily make your own +computations as to the cost of material, for unless a woman is "more than common +tall," two yards and a half will be more than enough for her habit skirt, which +should not rest an inch on the ground on the left side when she stands, and should not be +more than a quarter of a yard longer in its longest part. Two lengths, with allowance for +the hem two inches deep are needed for the skirt, and when very heavy melton is used, the +edges are left raw, the perfect riding skirt in modern eyes being that which shows no +trace of the needle, an end secured with lighter cloths by pressing all the seams before +hemming, and then very lightly blind-stitching the pointed edges in their proper place.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Strength is not desirable in the sewing of a habit skirt. It is +always possible that one may be thrown, and the substantial stitching which will hold one +to pommel and stirrup may be fatal to life. So hems are constructed to tear away easily, +and seams are run rather than stitched, or stitched with fine silk, and the cloth is not +too firmly secured to the wide sateen belt. The English safety skirts, invented three or +four years ago, have the seam on the knee-gore open from the knee down to the edge, and +the two breadths are caught together with buttons and elastic loops, all sewed on very +lightly so as to give way easily. The effect of this style of cutting is, if one be +thrown, to transform one into a flattered or libelous likeness of Lilian Russell in her +naval uniform, prepared to scamper away from one's horse, and from any other creatures +with eyes, but with one's bones unbroken and one's face unscathed by being dragged and +pounded over the road, or by being kicked.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">For the waist and sleeves, Esmeralda, you will allow as much as for +those of your ordinary frocks, and if you cannot find a fashionable tailor who will +consent to adapt himself to your tastes and to your purse, you may be fortunate enough to +find men who have worked in shops, but who now make habits at home, charging twenty-five +dollars for the work, and doing it well and faithfully, although, of course, not being +able to keep themselves informed as to the latest freaks of English fashion by foreign +travellers and correspondents, as their late employers do. There are two or three +dressmakers in Boston and five or six in New York whose habits fit well, and are elegant +in every particular, and, if you can find an old-fashioned tailoress who really knows her +business, and can prepare yourself to tell her about a few special details, you may obtain +a well-fitting waist and skirt at a very reasonable price.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Of these details the first is that the sateen lining should be black. +Gay colors are very pretty, but soon spoiled by perspiration, and white, the most fitting +lining for a lady's ordinary frock, is unsuitable for a habit, since one long, warm ride +may convert it into something very untidy of aspect. This lining, of which all the seams +should be turned toward the outside, should end at the belt line, and between it and the +cloth outside should be a layer of canvas, cut and shaped as carefully as possible, and +the whalebones, each in its covering, should be sewed between the canvas and the sateen. +If a waistcoat be worn, it should have a double sateen back with canvas interlining, and +may be high in the throat or made with a step collar like that of the waist. The cuffs are +simply indicated by stitching and are buttoned on the outside of the sleeve with two or +three buttons. Simulated waistcoats, basted firmly to the shoulder seams and under-arm +seams of the waist, and cut high to the throat with an officer collar, are liked by ladies +with a taste for variety, and are not expensive, as but for a small quantity of material +is required for each one. They are fastened by small hooks except in those parts shown by +the openings, and on these flat or globular pearl buttons are used.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">When a step collar and a man's tie are worn, the ordinary high collar +and chemisette, sold for thirty-eight cents, takes the place of the straight linen band +worn with the habit high in the throat, and the proper tie is the white silk scarf +fastened in a four-in-hand knot, and, if you be wise, Esmeralda you will buy this at a +good shop, and pay two dollars and a quarter for it, rather than to pay less and repent +ever after. Some girls wear white lawn evening ties, but they are really out of place in +the saddle, in which one is supposed to be in morning dress. Wear the loosest of collars +and cuffs, and fasten the latter to your habit sleeves with safety pins. The belts of your +habit skirt and waist should also be pinned together at the back, at the sides, and the +front, unless your tailor has fitted them with hooks and eyes, and if you be a provident +young person, you will tuck away a few more safety pins, a hairpin or two, half a row of +"the most common pin of North America," and a quarter-ounce flash of cologne, in +one of the little leather change pouches, and put it either in your habit pocket or your +saddle pocket. Sometimes, after a dusty ride of an hour or two, a five-minute halt under +the trees by the roadside, gives opportunity to remove the dust from the face and to cool +the hands, and the cologne is much better than the handkerchief "dipped in the +pellucid waters of a rippling brook," <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">a la</i> +novelist, for the pellucid brook of Massachusetts is very likely to run past a leather +factory, in which case its waters are anything but agreeable. Whether or not your habit +shall have a pocket is a matter of choice. If it have one, it should be small and should +be on the left side, just beyond the three flat buttons which fasten the front breadth and +side breadth of your habit at the waist. When thus placed, you can easily reach it with +either hand.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Fitting the habit over the knee is a feat not to be effected by an +amateur without a pattern, and the proper slope and adjustment of the breadths come by +art, not chance; but Harper's Bazaar patterns are easily obtained by mail. The best +tailors adjust the skirt while the wearer sits on a side saddle, and there is no really +good substitute for this, for, although one my guess fairly well at the fir of the knee, +nothing but actual trial will show whether or not, when in the saddle, the left side of +the skirt hangs perfectly straight, concealing the right side, and leaving the horse's +body visible below it. When your skirt is finished, no matter if it be made by the very +best of tailors, wear it once in the school before you appear on the road with it, and, +looking in the mirror, view it "with a crocket's eye," as the little boy said +when he appeared on the school platform as an example of the advantages of the wonderful +merits of oral instruction.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">An elastic strap about a quarter of a yard long should be sewed half +way between the curved knee seam and the hem, and should be slipped over the right toe +before mounting, and a second strap, for the left heel, should be sewed on the last seam +on the under side of the habit, to be adjusted after the foot is placed in the stirrup. +The result of this cutting and arrangement is the straight, simple, modern habit which is +so great a change from the riding dress of half a century ago, with its full skirt which +nearly swept the ground. The short skirt first appears in the English novel in "Guy +Livingstone," and is worn by the severe and upright Lady Alice, the dame who +hesitated not to snub Florence Bellasis, when snubbing was needful, and who was a mighty +huntress. Now everybody wears it, and the full skirts are seen nowhere except in the +riding-school dressing-rooms, where they yet linger because they may be worn by anybody, +whereas the plain skirts fits but one person. It seems odd that so many years were +required to discover that a short skirt, held in place by a strap placed over the right +toe and another slipped over the left heel, really protected the feet more than yards of +loosely floating cloth, but did not steam and electricity wait for centuries? Since the +new style was generally adopted, Englishwomen allow themselves the luxury of five or six +habits, instead of the one or two formerly considered sufficient, but each one is worn for +several years. When the extravagant wife, in Mrs. Alexander's "A Crooked Path," +suggests that she may soon want a new habit, her husband asks indignantly, "Did I not +give you one two years ago?"</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">The trousers may mach the habit or may be of stockinet, or the +imported cashmere tights may be worn. Women who are not fat and whose muscles are hard, +may choose whichsoever one of these pleases them, but fat women, and women whose flesh is +not too solid, must wear thick trousers, and would better have them lined with buckskin, +unless they would be transformed into what Sairey would call "a mask of +bruiges," and would frequent remark to Mrs. Harris that such was what she expected. +Trousers with gaiter fastenings below the knee are preferred by some women who put not +their faith in straps alone, and knee-breeches are liked by some, but to wear knee +breeches means to pay fifteen dollars for long riding-boots, instead of the modest seven +or eight dollars which suffice to buy ordinary Balmoral boots. Gaiters must button on the +left side of each leg, and trouser straps may be sewed on one side and buttoned on the +other, instead of being buttoned on both sides as men's are. Tailors sometimes insist on +two buttons, but as a woman does not wear her trousers except with the strap, it is not +difficult to see why she needs to be able to remove it. The best material for the strap is +thick soft kid, or thin leather lined with cloth. The thick, rubber strap used by some +tailors is dangerous, sometimes preventing the rider from placing her foot in the stirrup, +sometimes making her lose it at a critical moment. Whether breeches, tights, or trousers +are worn, they must be loose at the knee, or trotting will be impossible, and the rider +will feel as if bound to the second pommel, and will sometimes be unable to rise at all.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">As to gloves, the choice lies between the warm antelope skin +mousquetaires at two dollars a pair, and the tan-colored kid gauntlets at the same price. +The former are most comfortable for winter, the latter for summer, and neither can be too +large. Nobody was ever ordered out for execution for wearing black gloves, although they +are unusual, and now and then one sees a woman, whose soul is set on novelty, gorgeous in +yellow cavalry gauntlets, or even with white dragoon gauntlets, making her look like a +badly focused photograph.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Lastly, as to the hat. What shall it be, Esmeralda?</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">No tuft of grass-green plumes for you, like Queen Guinevere's, nor +yet the free flowing feather to be seen in so many beautiful old French pictures, nor the +plumed hat which "my sweet Mistress Ann Dacre" wore when Constance Sherwood's +loving eyes first fell upon her, but the simple jockey cap, exactly matching your habit, +and costing two dollars and a half or three dollars; the Derby cap for the same price or a +little more; or, best of all, the English or the American silk hat, as universally +suitable as a black silk frock was in the good old times when Mrs. Rutherford Birchard +Hayes was in the White House. The English Henry Heath hat at seven or eight dollars, with +its velvet forehead piece and its band of soft, rough silk, stays in place better than any +other, but it is too heavy for comfort. If you can have an American hatter remodel it, +making it weigh half a pound less, it will be perfection, always provided that he does +not, as he assuredly will unless you forbid it, throw away the soft, rough band, which +keeps the hat in place, and substitute one of the American smooth bands, designed to slip +off without ruffling the hair, and doing it instantly, the moment that a breeze touches +the brim of the hat. A hunting guard, fastened at the back of the hat brim and between two +habit buttons is better than an elastic caught under the braids of your hair, for when an +elastic does not snap outright, it is always trying to do so, and in the effort holds the +hat so tightly on the head so as sometimes to give actual pain. The hunting guard is no +restraint at all unless the hat flies off, in which case it keeps it from following the +example of John Gilpin's, but with the Henry Heath lining, your hat is perfectly secure in +anything from a Texas Norther to a New England east wind. If you follow London example, +and wear a straw hat for morning rides, sew a piece of white velvet on the inner side of +the band, and your forehead will not be marked.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Arrayed after these suggestions, Esmeralda, you will be +inconspicuous, and that is the general aim of the true lady's riding dress, with the +exception of those worn by German princesses, when, at a review, they lead the regiments +which they command. Then, their habits may be frogged and braided with gold, or they may +fire the air in habit and hat of white and scarlet, the regimental colors, as the Empress +of Germany did the other day. If you were sure of riding as these royal ladies do, perhaps +even white and scarlet might be permitted to you, but can you fancy yourself, Esmeralda, +sweeping across a parade ground with a thousand horsemen behind you, and ready to salute +your sovereign and commander-in-chief at the right moment, and to go forward with as much +precision as if you, too, were one of those magnificently drilled machines brought into +being by the man of blood and iron?</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal"> </p> +<a name="13"></a> +<br> +<br> +<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">XIII.</b></p> + +<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>'Tis an old maxim in the +schools,<br> +<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>That flattery's the food of fools.<br> +<i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> + </span>Swift.</i></p> + +<p class="MsoNormal"> </p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">If American children and American girls were the angels which their +mothers and their lovers tell them that they are, the best possible riding master for them +would be an American soldier who had learned and taught riding at West Point. Being of the +same race, pupil and teacher would have that vast fund of common memories, hopes and +feelings; that common knowledge of character, of good qualities and of defects, and that +ability to divine motives and to predict action which constitute perfect sympathy, and +their relations to one another would be mutually agreeable and profitable. Unfortunately, +Esmeralda, you, like possibly some other American girls, are not an angel, and if you +were, you could not have such a riding master, because the very few men who have the +specified qualifications are too well acquainted with the characteristics of their +countrywomen to instruct them in the equestrian art. Who, then, shall be his substitute? +Clearly, either a person sufficiently patient and clever to neutralize the faults of +American women, or one capable of adapting himself to them, of eluding them, and of +forcing a certain quantity of knowledge upon his pupils, almost in spite of themselves. +The former is hardly to be found among natives of the United States; the latter can be +found nowhere else, except, possibly, in certain English shires in which the inhabitants +so closely resemble the average American that when they immigrate hither they are scarcely +distinguishable from men whose ancestors came two or three centuries ago.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">A foreign teacher, whether French, German, or Hungarian, always +regards himself in the just and proper European manner as the superior of his pupil. The +traditions in which he has been reared, in which he has been instructed, not only in +riding, but in all other matters, survive from the time when all learning was received +from men whose title to respect rested not only on their wisdom but on their +ecclesiastical office, and who expected and received as much deference from their pupils +as from their congregations. Undeniably, there are unruly children in European schools, +but their rebelliousness is never encouraged, and their teachers are expected to quell it, +not to submit to it, much less to endeavour to avoid it by giving no commands which are +distasteful. Even in the worst conducted private schools on the continent, there is always +at least one master who must be obeyed, whose authority is held as beyond appeal, and in +the school conducted either by the church or by civil authority, the duty of enforcing +perfect discipline is regarded as quite as imperative as that of demanding well-learned +lessons.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Passing through these institutions, the young European enters the +military school with as little thought of disputing any order which may be given him as of +arguing with the priest who states a theological truth from the pulpit. And, indeed, had +he been reared under the tutelage of one of those modern silver-tongued American +pedagogues, who make gentle requests lest they should elicit antagonism by commands, the +military school should soon completely alter the complexion of his ideas, for he would +find his failures in the execution of orders treated as disobedience. He would not be +punished at first, it is true, but pretty theories that he was nervous, or ill, or the +victim of hereditary disability, or of fibre too delicately attenuated to perform any +required act, would not be admitted except, indeed, as a reason for expulsion. Moreover, +the tests to which he would be compelled to submit before this escape from discipline lay +open to him, would be neither slight nor easily borne, for the European military teacher +has yet to learn the existence of that exquisite personal dignity which is hopelessly +blighted by corporal punishment or infractions of discipline.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Will you teach me how to ride, sir?" asked a Boston man of +a Hungarian soldier, one of the pioneers among Boston instructors.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Will I teach you! Eh! I don't know," said the exile +dolefully, for during his few weeks in the city, he had seen something of the ways of the +American who fancies himself desirous of being taught. "Perhaps you will learn, but +will—I—teach—you? You can ride?"</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"A little." </p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"Very well! Mount that horse, and ride around the ring."</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Away went the pupil, doing his best, but before he had traversed two +sides of the school, the master shouted to the horse, and the pupil was sitting in the +tan. He picked himself up, and returned to the mounting-stand, saying: "Will you tell +me how to stay on next time?"</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">"I will," cried the Hungarian in a small ecstasy; "and +I will make a rider of you!" And he did, too, and certainly took as much pleasure in +his pupil in the long course of instruction which followed, and in the resultant +proficiency.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">In European riding-schools for ladies, there is, of course, no resort +to corporal punishment, but there is none of that careful abstention from telling +disagreeable truths which popular ignorance extracts from American teachers in all +schools, except in the military and naval academies. Indeed, the need of it is hardly +felt, for that peculiar self-consciousness which makes an American awkward under +observation and restive under reproof is scarcely found in countries not democratic, and +the "I'm ez good ez you be" feeling that is at the bottom of American +intractability, has no chance to flourish in lands where position is a matter of birth and +not of self-assertion.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">A French woman, compelled to make part of her toilet in a railway +waiting-room under the eyes of half a score of enemies, that is to say, of ten other +women, arranges her tresses, purchased or natural, uses powder-puff and hare's foot if she +choose, and turns away from the mirror armed for conquest; but an American similarly +situated, forgets half her hair-pins, does not dare to wash her face carefully lest some +one should sniff condemnation of her fussiness, and looks worse after her efforts at +beautifying. A French girl, told that her English accent is bad, corrects it carefully; an +American, gently reminded that a French "u" is not pronounced like +"you," changes it to "oo," and stares defiance at Bocher and all his +works. And even that commendable reserve which hinders well-bred Americans from frank +self-discussion, stands in the way of perfect sympathy between him and the European +master, representative of races in which everybody, from an emperor in his proclamations +to the peasant chatting over his beer or <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: +normal">petit vin</i>, +may discourse upon his most recondite peculiarities.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">For all these reasons, the European riding master is often +misunderstood, even by his older pupils, and young girls almost invariably mistake his +patient reiteration and his methodical vivacity for anger, so that his classes seldom +contain any pupils not really anxious to learn, or whose parents are not determined that +they shall learn in his school and no other. Teaching is a matter of strict conscience +with him, and even after years of experience, and in spite of more than one severe lesson +as to American sensitiveness, he continues to speak the truth. Even when his pupils have +become what the ordinary observer calls perfect riders, he allows no fault to go +unreproved, although nobody can more thoroughly enjoy the evening classes, organized by +fairly good riders rather for amusement than for instruction. If you think you can endure +perfect discipline and incessant plain speaking go to him, Esmeralda.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">If you cannot, take the other alternative, the American or the +English master, but remember that it is only by absolute submission that you will obtain +the best instruction which he is capable of giving. If you do not compel him to tax his +mind with remembering all your foibles and weaknesses, you may, thanks to race sympathy, +learn more rapidly at first from him than from a foreigner, and, unless you are rude and +insubordinate to the point of insolence, you may depend upon receiving no actual harshness +from him, although he will refuse to flatter you, and will repeat his warnings against +faults, quite as persistently as any foreigner.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">A very little observation of your fellow pupils will show you that +presumption upon his good nature is wofully common, and that his American inability to +forget that a woman is a woman, even when she conducts herself as if her name were Ursa or +Jenny, often subjects him to stupendous impertinence, which he receives with calm and +silent contempt. You will find that his instruction follows the same lines as that of all +foreign masters in the United States, for there is no American system of horsemanship, the +traditions of the army, and of the north, being derived from France, those of the south +fro, England, and those of the southwest from Spain, by the way of Mexico and Texas. Under +his instruction, you will remain longer in the debatable land between perfect ignorance of +horsemanship, and being a really accomplished rider, than you would if taught by a +foreigner, but, as has already been said, you will learn more rapidly at first, an the +result, if you choose to work hard, will be much the same.</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal">Should you, by way of experiment, choose to take lessons from both +native and foreign masters, you will find each frankly ready to admit the merits of the +other, and to acknowledge that he himself is better suited to some pupils than to others +and, to come back to what was told you at the outset, you will find them unanimous in +assuring you that your best teacher, the instructor without whose aid you can learn +nothing, is yourself, your slightly rebellious, but withal clever, American self. You can +learn, Esmeralda. There is no field of knowledge into which the American woman has +attempted to enter, in which she has not demonstrated her ability to compete, when she +chooses to put forth all her energy, with her sisters of other nations, but she must work, +and must work steadily. There are American teachers of grammar who cannot parse; American +female journalists who cannot write; American women calling themselves doctors, but unable +to make a diagnosis between the cholera and the measles; and American women practising law +and dependent for a living on blatant self-advertising, but with the faculties of Vassar +and Wellesley in existence; with the editor of Harper's Bazar receiving the same salary as +Mr. Curtis; with American women acknowledged as a credit to the medical and to the legal +profession—what of it? The American woman can learn anything, can do anything. Do you +learn to ride, and, having done it, "keep riding." At present you have received +just sufficient instruction to qualify you to ride properly escorted, on good roads, but +—</p> + +<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> + </span>"KEEP RIDING!"</p> + +<hr> +<pre> + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN THE RIDING-SCHOOL; CHATS WITH ESMERALDA*** + +******* This file should be named 10539-h.txt or 10539-h.zip ******* + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/5/3/10539">https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/5/3/10539</a> + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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