had learned the knack of
falling easily, and from constant practice was able at the age of
fourteen to stick on firmly even without a saddle, and was absolutely
fearless as to any animal he mounted.

In the two years which had followed he had kept up his riding. Every
morning after breakfast he rode to Richmond, six miles distant, put up
his horse at some stable there, and spent three hours at school; the
rest of the day was his own, and he would often ride off with some of
his schoolfellows who had also come in from a distance, and not return
home till late in the evening. Vincent took after his English father
rather than his Virginia mother, both in appearance and character, and
was likely to become as tall and brawny a man as the former had been
when he first won the love of the Virginia heiress.

He was full of life and energy, and in this respect offered a strong
contrast to most of his schoolfellows of the same age. For although
splendid riders and keen sportsmen, the planters of Virginia were in
other respects inclined to indolence; the result partly of the climate,
partly of their being waited upon from childhood by attendants ready to
carry out every wish. He had his father's cheerful disposition and good
temper, together with the decisive manner so frequently acquired by a
service in the army, and at the same time he had something of the warmth
and enthusiasm of the Virginia character.

Good rider as he was, he was somewhat surprised at the horse the
overseer had selected for him. It was certainly a splendid animal, with
great bone and power; but there was no mistaking the expression of its
turned-back eye, and the ears that lay almost flat on the head when
anyone approached him.

"It is a splendid animal, no doubt, Jonas," he said the first time he
inspected it; "but he certainly looks as if he had a beast of a temper.
I fear what was told my mother about him is no exaggeration; for Mr.
Markham told me to-day, when I rode down there with his son, and said we
had bought Wildfire, that a friend of his had had him once, and only
kept him for a week, for he was the most vicious brute he ever saw."

"I am sorry I have bought him now, sir," Jonas said. "Of course I should
not have done so if I had heard these things before; but I was told he
was one of the finest horses in the country, only a little tricky, and
as his price was so reasonable I thought it a great bargain. But I see
now I was wrong, and that it