When he came up, I asked him how he dared to ride my horses about, without my leave.

Of course he said he was sorry, which meant nothing; and he added, as a sort of excuse, that he used from a child to ride the horses at the mill down to the ford for water; and that his father generally had a young one or two, in that paddock of his by the mill, and he used often to ride them; and seeing the pony one day, galloping about the field and kicking up its heels, he wondered whether he could sit a horse still, and especially whether he could keep on that pony's back.
Then he set to, to try.
"The pony flung him several times, at first; and no wonder, as he had no saddle, and only a piece of old rope for a bridle; but he mastered him at last, and he assured me that he had never used the stick, and certainly he had not one when I saw him.

I told him, of course, that he knew he ought not to have done it; but that, as he had taken it in hand, he might finish it.

I said that I intended to have it broken in for Kate, and that he had best get a bit of sacking and put it on sideways, to accustom the pony to carry a lady.

Then I gave him a shilling, and told him I would give him five more, when he could tell me the pony was sufficiently broken and gentle to carry Kate." Mrs.Ellison shook her head in disapprobation.
"It is of no use, William, my talking to the villagers as to the ways of their boys, if that is the way you counteract my advice." "But I don't always, my dear," the squire said blandly.