THANATOS AND ZOE

I think it must have been soon after this that my uncle bought himself a
horse. I know something of horses now--that is, if much riding and much
love suffice to give a knowledge of them--and the horse which was a glory
and a wonder to me then, is a glory and a wonder to me still. He was
large, big-boned, and powerful, with less beauty but more grandeur than a
thoroughbred, and full of a fiery gentleness. He was the very horse for
sir Philip Sidney!

One day, after he had had him for several months, and had let no one
saddle him but himself, therefore knew him perfectly, and knew that the
horse knew his master, I happened to be in the yard as he mounted. The
moment he was in the saddle, he bent down to me, and held out his hand.

"Come with me, little one," he said.

Almost ere I knew, I was in the saddle before him. I grasped his hand,
instinctively caught with my foot at his, and was astride the pommel. I
will not say I sat very comfortably, but the memory of that day's delight
will never leave me--not "through all the secular to be." There must be a
God to the world that could give any such delight as fell then to the
share of one little girl! I think my uncle must soon after have got
another saddle, for I have no recollection of any more discomfort; I
remember only the delight of the motion of the horse under me.

For, after this, I rode with him often, and he taught me to ride as
surely not many have been taught. When he saw me so at home in my seat as
to require no support, he made me change my position, and go behind him.
There I sat sideways on a cloth, like a lady of old time on a pillion.