Now, before you mount, make his acquaintance--see there, how he kisses you and licks your face, and see how he lifts his foot, that's to shake hands.

You may trust him--now you are on his back at last; mind how you hold the bridle--gently, gently! It's not four pair of hands like yours can hold him if he wishes to be off.

Mind what I tell you--leave it all to him." Off went the cob at a slow and gentle trot, too fast, however, for so inexperienced a rider.

I soon felt myself sliding off, the animal perceived it too, and instantly stood stone still till I had righted myself; and now the groom came up: "When you feel yourself going," said he, "don't lay hold of the mane, that's no use; mane never yet saved man from falling, no more than straw from drowning; it's his sides you must cling to with your calves and feet, till you learn to balance yourself.
That's it, now abroad with you; I'll bet my comrade a pot of beer that you'll be a regular rough rider by the time you come back." And so it proved; I followed the directions of the groom, and the cob gave me every assistance.

How easy is riding, after the first timidity is got over, to supple and youthful limbs; and there is no second fear.
The creature soon found that the nerves of his rider were in proper tone.
Turning his head half round he made a kind of whining noise, flung out a little foam, and set off.
In less than two hours I had made the circuit of the Devil's Mountain, and was returning along the road, bathed with perspiration, but screaming with delight; the cob laughing in his equine way, scattering foam and pebbles to the left and right, and trotting at the rate of sixteen miles an hour.
Oh, that ride! that first ride!--most truly it was an epoch in my existence; and I still look back to it with feelings of longing and regret.