complacency, and a conscious triumph that he was still on the pad's
back,--"certainly it is true 'that the noblest conquest ever made by man
was that of the horse:' a fine creature it is,--a very fine creature,--
and uncommonly difficult to sit on, especially without stirrups." Firmly
in his stirrups the parson planted his feet; and the heart within him was
very proud.




CHAPTER XII.

The borough town of Lansmere was situated in the county adjoining that
which contained the village of Hazeldean. Late at noon the parson
crossed the little stream which divided the two shires, and came to an
inn, which was placed at an angle, where the great main road branched off
into two directions, the one leading towards Lansmere, the other going
more direct to London. At this inn the pad stopped, and put down both
ears with the air of a pad who has made up her mind to bait. And the
parson himself, feeling very warm and somewhat sore, said to the pad,
benignly, "It is just,--thou shalt have corn and water!"

Dismounting, therefore, and finding himself very stiff as soon as he
reached /terra firma/, the parson consigned the pad to the hostler, and
walked into the sanded parlour of the inn, to repose himself on a very
hard Windsor chair.

He had been alone rather more than half-an-hour, reading a county
newspaper which smelled much of tobacco, and trying to keep off the flies
that gathered round him in swarms, as if they had never before seen a