How did she make me offer? I did not mean to. All
country girls ride, I believe. I often see Miss Etty cantering through
the shady lanes all by herself. I saw the bars down, at the end of the
track through the wood, one day. I immediately concluded that Little
Ugly had paced off that way, that I need not see her from my window. I
put the bars up again, and lay in wait behind the bushes. Soon I heard
her approaching. I come forward as she comes near, on that rat-like
pony of hers, who holds his head down as if searching for something
lost in the road. I stand in doubt whether to laugh at her
predicament, or advance in a gentlemanly manner to remove the obstacle
I had put in her way. When lo! the absurd little nag clears it at a
bound, and skims away over the green track like a swallow, till he
vanishes under the leafy arch. I am left in a very foolish attitude,
with mouth and eyes wide open.
Now this independent young lady shall be at liberty to take care of
herself, with no officious interference of mine; I will not invite her
to join us to-morrow morning, as I intended. I wonder if any horses
are to be procured that are not rats. I hope Miss Flora knows enough
to mount her pony, for I am sure I do not know how to help her. Whew!
I hope we shall meet with no disasters! I feel certain Little Handsome
would scream like a sea-gull, pull the wrong rein, tangle her foot in
the stirrup or riding-skirt, faint, fall, break her neck--O horrors!
Will not the dear old Aunt Tabitha forbid her going?
What a well-proportioned and ladylike figure it was, now I think of
it! How gracefully she sat upon her flying Dobbin!
_Sept.
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