Sixth—­Sit down on the floor with your feet stretched straight before you, and resting on their heels, and drop backward until you are lying flat, then resume your first position, keeping your arms and forearms at right angles during the whole exercise.  Still sitting, bend as far to the right as you can, then bend as far as possible to the left, resuming a perfectly erect position between the movements, and keeping your feet and legs still.  Rising, stand on your toes and let yourself down fifty times; then stand on your heels, and raise and lower your toes fifty times.  The firmer you hold your arms and hands during these movements, the better for you, Esmeralda, and for the horse who will be your first victim.

Already one can seem to see him, poor, innocent beast, miserable in the memories of an army of beginners, his mouth so accustomed to being jerked in every direction, without anything in particular being meant by it, that neither Arabia nor Mexico can furnish a bit which would surprise him, or startle his four legs from their propriety.  No cow is more placid, no lamb more gentle; he would not harm a tsetse fly or kick a snapping terrier.  His sole object in life is to keep himself and his rider out of danger, and to betake himself to that part of the ring in which the least labor should be expected of him.  The tiny girls who ride him call him “dear old Billy Buttons,” or “darling Gypsy,” or “nice Sir Archer.”  Heaven knows what he calls them in his heart!  Were he human, it would be something to be expressed by dashes and “d’s”; but, being a horse, he is silent, and shows his feelings principally by heading for the mounting-stand whenever he thinks that a pupil’s hour is at an end.

Why that long face, Esmeralda?  Must you do all those exercises?  Bless your innocent soul, no!  Dress yourself and run away.  The exercises will be good for you, but they are not absolutely necessary.  Remember, however, that your best riding-school master is behind your own pretty forehead, and that your brain can save your muscles many a strain and many a pound of labor.  And remember, too, that, in riding, as in everything else, to him that hath shall be given, and the harder and firmer your muscles when you begin, the greater will be the benefit which you will derive from your rides, and the more you will enjoy them.  The pale and weary invalid may gain flesh and color with every lesson, but the bright and healthy pupil, whose muscles are like iron, whose heart and lungs are in perfect order, can ride for hours without weariness, and double her strength in a comparatively short time.

But—­Esmeralda, dear, before you go—­whisper!  Why do you want to take riding lessons?  Theodore asked you to go out with him next Monday, and Nell said that she would lend you her habit, and you thought that you would take three lessons and learn to ride?  There, go and dress, child; go and dress!

II.