ularly, accentuating her springless
hops. More than that, the disproportionate excess of rider, saddle,
and accoutrements was so great that he had, at times, the appearance of
lifting Chu Chu forcibly from the ground by superior strength, and of
actually contributing to her exercise! As they came towards me, a wild
tossing and flying mass of hoofs and spurs, it was not only difficult
to distinguish them apart, but to ascertain how much of the jumping was
done by Enriquez separately. At last Chu Chu brought matters to a close
by making for the low-stretching branches of an oak-tree which stood at
the corner of the lot. In a few moments she emerged from it--but without
Enriquez.

I found the gallant fellow disengaging himself from the fork of a branch
in which he had been firmly wedged, but still smiling and confident, and
his cigarette between his teeth. Then for the first time he removed it,
and seating himself easily on the branch with his legs dangling down, he
blandly waved aside my anxious queries with a gentle reassuring gesture.

"Remain tranquil, my friend. Thees does not count! I have conquer--you
observe--for why? I have NEVER for once ARRIVE AT THE GROUND! Consequent
she is disappoint! She will ever that I SHOULD! But I have got her when
the hair is not long! Your oncle Henry"--with an angelic wink--"is fly!
He is ever a bully boy, with the eye of glass! Believe me. Behold! I am
here! Big Injin! Whoop!"

He leaped lightly to the ground. Chu Chu, standing watchfully at a
little distance, was evidently astonished at his appearance. She threw
out her hind hoofs violently, shot up into the air until the stirrups
crossed each other high above the saddle, and made for the stable in a
succession of rabbit-like bounds--taking the precaution to remove the
saddle, on entering, by striking it against the lintel of the door. "You
observe," said Enriquez blandly, "she would make that thing of ME. Not
having the good occasion, she ees dissatisfied. Where are you now?"

Two or three days afterwards he rode her again with the same
result--accepted by him with the same heroic complacency. As we did not,
for certain reasons, care to use the open road for this exercise, and as
it was impossible to remove the tree, we were obliged to submit to the
inevitable. On the following day I mounted her--undergoing the same
experience as Enriquez, with the individual sensation of falling from a
third-story window on top of a counting-ho