The King of the School, or, Who will Win? — page 93: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

YHE KING OF IME SCHOCL; OR, WHO WILL WIN? “What for? Surely you are not going to touch the mad beast with any- thing like a whip ?” | “ Certainly ; I mean to give her both whip and spur in moderation, and go out to those trees and back at racing speed.” So saying, Frank buttoned his coat, fixed his hat firmly on his head, and snatched the riding-whip from Freddy’s hand. | “Don’t do it, Frank. I know the brute will be the death of you.” “Tam bound to bring Brown Bess to her senses, after Baynes’s sneer,” was the reply, and away he started. Bess was more than three-parts thorough-bred, and Frank, though a fine, well-grown youth, did not carry over eight stone of flesh, blood, and bone. | The mare sped along like the wind. The fir trees were reached and passed, but at such a headlong pace were they going, that ere he could pull up, he became aware of a ditch or gully before him, some eighteen or twenty feet wide —how deep he could not say. Any attempt to check the mare’s speed would certainly result m rolling both horse and rider in the ditch, when most probably both would be severally damaged. So with a dig of the spurs and a cut of the whip, he put her to it. The mare, however, was rather blown, and though her fore-legs cleared the chasm she had a hard struggle to fairly gain the opposite side, falling with her fore legs and body on the turf, while the hind legs hung down in the chasm. Frank was obliged to jump off quick as lightning, and give a hard pull at the halter to get her out of the ditch. aot 87 nner es © retary vey ai? “T think youare pretty well subdued now, my beauty,” said the young eques~ trian, as he brushed the dirt off her legs and flanks, an ojssration she sub- mitted to very quietly; “ but you'll have to carry me back over that ditch.” He led her about a hundred yards. turned, remounted, and rode her at the dyke, which this time she cleared splendidly. Then Frank rejoined Webber, and, after a quiet trot across the downs, the two youths re-entered the good old town of Ballsbury by another road. Baynes was having a solitary ride out. As Frank and his friend were return- ing they met him. A slight nod was the only acknow. ledgment of acquaintance, but Baynes’s flushed face betokened his mortification at the frustration of his schemes. He had. heard of the affair in the market-place and town-hall, ard, while hearing, muttered curses upon the good fortune which seemed to attend every action of our hero. Frank, on appearing with the tamed steed at the stable-yard, received « perfect ovation, which he took very coolly, not knowing how far the horsey people there assembled were sincere in their congratulations. The master of the establishment was profuse in his apologies for the in- convenience to which Frank had been put, adding-— “IT never knew the mare do such a thing before.” Frank thought that very possible, and accepted the apology, especially as the owner of Brown Bess offered him the free use of the quadruped rvs days a-week for a month. ee EO DOC (S(O) mn