ll every few yards were fenced in, and yet seven
long-legged, long-bodied, and not over fleshy horses, with riders in
white, in blue, in yellow, and striped brown and yellow, were ready for
another start, which they made like a thunderburst.

On they came, flying and flashing through the lots, like a flock of
birds, right up to the first fence. I sprang up--everybody sprang up,
wild and anxious--I expected to see the whole grist of them pitch
head-foremost against the rails, when up they all rose, and away they
went straight over, and off like a shot to the next and the next,
clearing one after another, before you could draw a deep breath. Across
lots, down the road, in and out they went, jumping fences, now abreast,
now in a swift line, till they came up all at once to a pond of water.

I screamed right out, and felt myself growing cold, for they were
rushing toward it full split, and it was wider across than the
mill-stream back of our school-house.

"Stop 'em, stop 'em! They'll be drowned, they'll be killed!" I screamed
out, just crazy with fear.

No one minded me; the whole crowd was too busy watching those wild
riders to mind me if I had yelled like an engine whistle. They came
rushing up nearer--nearer, almost in a line, as if some enemy were
ahead, and the whole squad meant to ride right through and trample
everything down. They were close by the water now, with a low fence that
side. On they rushed--a whole cloud of hoofs ploughed up through the
air, and those seven horses went shooting like sparrows over the fence
and across the water. Their hoofs struck fire from the stone wall on the
other side, and away they went, pell-mell, their riders shooting out
colors like a broken rainbow, and the crowd cheering them on as if it
had been a sham fight on training-day.

On they flew like a young whirlwind, though one bay horse they called
"Blind Tom" fell short. The rider, trying to bring him up, was pitched
over his head, at which the crowd was hushed, but burst out again when
Blind Tom left the poor fellow behind, and dashed on with the other
horses neck and neck round the fields, leaping a fence or two, before
the poor stunned rider could roll over and pick himself up.

Oh, it was too droll--that plucky horse, dashing along with the rest,
shooting over the fences, up to time, and acting like a soldier charging
under command. I could just have gone down and kissed the splendid
creature, and the whole crowd--thou