On the other hand--" "Well ?" "I was about to remark that they grow an immense quantity of tulips in this country, which demand a harder soil." "We shall pass none." "That is fortunate.

For when I reach home and they ask me, 'Well, what have you done in Holland ?' it would be sad to own, 'I have done little beyond rolling on a bed of tulips.'" With this he climbed into the saddle and thrust his feet well into the stirrups, while his father whispered a word or two to the boatmen, who were about to push off on their return journey.
"Are you ready, my son ?" he asked, returning and mounting beside him.
"Quite." "Forward, then!" The two horses broke into a trot.

"Ugh," exclaimed Tristram, bobbing up and down.
"I told you we must go faster.

Stick your knees tightly into the saddle--so." The wind and the night began to race by Tristram's ears as his horse leapt forward.

The motion became easier, but the pace was terrifying to a desperate degree; for it seemed that he sat upon nothing, but was being whirled through the air as from a catapult at the heels of his father, who pounded furiously through the darkness a dozen yards ahead.