one of her pigs, it hardly squealed and she grunted scarcely more than she
had already. I dangled the piglet before her, and she only smelt it and
kept on grunting, with no sign of wrath.

"Come out, Felix," the _Villicus_ drawled, "you are sow-proof. But how do
you do it?"

"I don't know," I replied, "but I have always been able to gentle fierce
animals of any kind. No animal ever attacks me."

Thereupon he tried me with three rams famous for butting, two he-goats of
even worse reputation and half a score of watch-dogs. I came unscathed
from close companionship with the goats and rams, and the dogs behaved as
if they had been my pets from their puppyhood.

"Can you do as well with horses?" the _Villicus_ enquired.

"I believe so," I replied; "give me a chance."

"I shall," he asserted. "I'll round up all our colts fit for breaking and
try you on them. I'll get in most of the boys to watch the fun. It'll take
about ten days to get ready. Meanwhile you can take out another bunch of
heifers with new calves. It seems to suit you and the calves and the
heifers."

When I returned from my third outing, hard and fit and happy, the
_Villicus_ asked me how soon I would be ready for colt-breaking.

"Tomorrow," I said.

The next day was made a sort of festival, with all the horse-herders at
the villa paddocks.

First of all four experienced horse-wranglers roped a filly, threw her,
bitted and bridled her while one sat on her head, let her get on her feet,
hobbled her, held her so while two more saddled her and then held her
while one mounted her. When they let her go she reared, bucked, dashed
about, bucked again and again, and continued till exhaustion forced her to
quiet down and obey her rider, who had kept his seat from the first.

"What do you think of that, Felix?" the _Villicus_ asked me.

"As good horse-wrangling as can be seen anywhere," I replied. "Up to
standard and even above normal. But I can do better."

"Bold words," said the _Villicus_; "we'll give you a chance to prove
them."

Another filly was roped, bitted, bridled, and saddled, and her captors
invited me to mount.

"Pooh!" said I. "Let some one else ride her. I don't need all those
preliminaries. I can walk right out into that bunch of colts, catch any
young stallion you point out, hold him by the nose, gentle him without any
rope or thong on him, mount him by vaulting onto his back, and ride him
about unbitted, unbridled, bareback, and as I