y. Mr Dillon, the magistrate, Leather's late
employer, is the nearest--ten miles distant."

"Then home must be a very lonely place."

"We have never found it so, Nic," said his father drily. "Busy people
are never lonely. Now then, I think I've behaved very well to you and
spared your feelings. I promise that I will not laugh at you."

"What about, father?"

"Your first essay at trotting. It is of no use to keep a horse and ride
at a walk. You can progress as fast as that on your own legs."

Nic drew a deep breath, and wished that he was bestriding a donkey on
the common near the Friary, with his schoolmates looking on instead of
his father.

"I'm ready, father," he said.

"Wait a few minutes. I want to accustom you to holding your gun on
horseback. You will always have either a gun or a stock-whip, but I
don't want you to begin your career as a squatter--"

"I say, father, what a horrible name that is for a sheep farmer!"

"`A rose by any other name would smell as sweet,' Nic. `Squatter' does
very well; and I say I don't want you to begin your career by shooting
your father or his horse. So you shall have a shot at something. You
will not be afraid to fire your gun?"

"Oh, I say, father!" said Nic reproachfully, "don't--please don't think
me such a miserable coward."

"I don't, my lad--nothing of the kind. I only treat you as a raw lad
who has to be trained to our ways."

"But you expect me to shoot you as soon as I begin to trot."

"I don't mean you to, Nic. But such a thing is quite possible when you
fall."

"Then you think I shall fall," said Nic ruefully.

"Certainly, if you lose your balance and do not hold tight."

"But you told me not to hold!" cried Nic.

"With your hands. They are to hold your reins and gun. A horseman
holds on with his knees; and I suppose yours are a bit sore?"

Nic nodded.

"Then make up your mind not to fall; but we'll have that gun empty
first. You shall have a shot at something."

Nic drew rein sharply, and his horse stopped and shook its head, and
champed the bit impatiently.

"Don't check your horse like that, boy!"

"I only pulled the reins, father."

"Yes, as if his mouth were made of wood. You would soon spoil him, and
make him hard-mouthed, if you jerked the bit about in that fashion. A
horse like this is extremely sensitive. You only need just feel his
mouth with the rein, and he will stop at the slightest additional
pressure, just