.

Perhaps it adds to the zest of life the fact that many of its incidents
are of such a nature that we find it difficult to say whether they are
drawbacks or advantages. For instance, the jovial garrulity of Quashy
was a drawback at times. At other times it was a decided advantage, and
his friends and companions held such interchangeable opinions on the
point that they could not readily have expressed them if called on to do
so at a moment's notice.

A runaway tendency in a horse is considered by most people a
disadvantage. Yet there are some people whose nerves and spirits are so
constituted that they have a sneaking fondness for a horse of this
disposition.

Strange though it may seem, Manuela belonged to this class. It is said
that men whose characters form a contrast are more likely to draw
towards each other than those whose characters are similar. May the
same principle not operate between man and the lower animals? Was it
not the gentleness, tenderness, womanliness, softness of Manuela which
caused her to dote upon and delight in her steed, though it was a huge,
high stepping, arch-necked, rearing, plunging animal--something between
an Irish hunter and a Mexican warhorse?

The steed in question had been purchased for her by her father from the
Gauchos, who assured him that the animal was a remarkably good one to
go. They told the simple truth, but not the whole truth, for sometimes
it would "go" with its hind-legs doing double service in the way of
kicking, and, at other times, it balanced that feat by giving its
fore-legs a prodigious flourish while in the act of rearing. To do the
creature justice, however, it could and did go ahead of its companions
on the journey, and retained that position without fatigue, as was
evinced by the flashing eye, distended nostril, pawing and snorting with
which it received every proposal to halt.

Being a splendid rider, Manuela managed this spanking charger with
infinite grace and ease, all the more that it happened to have a tender
mouth, and only succeeded in getting beyond her control when it chanced
to get the bit between its teeth. At first her father and the others
were alarmed, and offered to change her steed for another; but she
refused to change, and when they saw how fearlessly she rode, they
became reconciled--all except Lawrence.

"It is the fearlessness of innocence combined with ignorance," he
muttered to himself one afternoon, as Manuela's horse,