s that led on to the platform where the
horses stood. A woman, then a man and a boy, then two men, then two
girls giggling together, then a man and a girl.

And the stout fellow shouted: "Come along hup! Come along hup! Now,
lidies and gents! A 'alfpenny a ride! Come along hup!"

Jeremy noticed then that the fine horse with the black mane had stopped
close beside him. Impossible to say whether the horse had intended it
or no! He was staring now in front of him with the innocent stupid gaze
that animals can assume when they do not wish to give themselves away.
But Jeremy could see that he was taking it for granted that Jeremy
understood the affair. "If you're such a fool as not to understand,"
he seemed to say, "well, then, I don't want you." Jeremy gazed, and the
reproach in those eyes was more than he could endure. And at any moment
someone else might settle himself on that beautiful back! There, that
stupid fat giggling girl! No--she had moved elsewhere... He could endure
it no longer and, with a thumping heart, clutching a scalding penny in
a red-hot hand, he mounted the steps. "One ride--little gen'elman. 'Ere
you are! 'Old on now! Oh, you wants that one, do yer? Eight yer are--yer
pays yer money and yer takes yer choice." He lifted Jeremy up. "Put yer
arms round 'is neck now--'e won't bite yer!"

Bite him indeed! Jeremy felt, as he clutched the cool head and let his
hand slide over the stiff black mane, that he knew more about that horse
than his owner did. He seemed to feel beneath him the horse's response
to his clutching knees, the head seemed to rise for a moment and nod to
him and the eyes to say: "It's all right. I'll look after you. I'll give
you the best ride of your life!" He felt, indeed, that the gaze of the
whole world was upon him, but he responded to it proudly, staring boldly
around him as though he had been seated on merry-go-rounds all his
days. Perhaps some in the gaping crowd knew him and were saying: "Why,
there's the Rev. Cole's kid--" Never mind; he was above scandal. From
where he was he could see the Fair lifted up and translated into a
fantastic splendour. Nothing was certain, nothing defined--above him a
canopy of evening sky, with circles and chains of stars mixed with the
rosy haze of the flame of the Fair; opposite him was the Palace of "The
Two-Headed Giant from the Caucasus," a huge man as portrayed in the
picture hanging on his outer walls, a giant naked, save for a bearskin,
with