ling at the end of the rope, very
much like a crab that has just been caught by the means of a pole and
line.

Toby kicked, waved his hands, and floundered about generally, but all to
no purpose, until the horse came round again, and then he made frantic
efforts to regain his footing, which efforts were aided--or perhaps it
would be more proper to say retarded--by the long lash of Mr. Castle's
whip, that played around his legs with merciless severity.

"Stand up! stand up!" cried his instructor, as Toby reeled first to one
side and then to the other, now standing erect in the saddle, and now
dangling at the end of the rope, with the horse almost out from under
him.

This command seemed needless, as it was exactly what Toby was trying to
do; but as it was given he struggled all the harder, until it seemed to
him that the more he tried the less did he succeed.

And this first lesson progressed in about the same way until the hour
was over, save that now and then Mr. Castle would give him some good
advice, but oftener he would twist the long lash of the whip around the
boy's legs with such force that Toby believed the skin had been taken
entirely off.

It may have been a relief to Mr. Castle when this first lesson was
concluded, and it certainly was to Toby, for he had had all the teaching
in horsemanship that he wanted, and he thought, with deepest sorrow,
that this would be of daily occurrence during all the time he remained
with the circus.

[Illustration: THE FIRST LESSON.]

As he went out of the tent he stopped to speak with his friend the old
monkey, and his troubles seemed to have increased when he stood in front
of the cage calling "Mr. Stubbs! Mr. Stubbs!" and the old fellow would
not even come down from off the lofty perch where he was engaged in
monkey gymnastics with several younger companions. It seemed to him, as
he afterward told Ben, "as if Mr. Stubbs had gone back on him because he
knew that he was in trouble."

When he went toward the booth Mr. Lord looked at him around the corner
of the canvas--for it seemed to Toby that his employer could look around
a square corner with much greater ease than he could straight
ahead--with a disagreeable leer in his eye, as though he enjoyed the
misery which he knew his little clerk had just undergone.

"Can you ride yet?" he asked, mockingly, as Toby stepped behind the
counter to attend to his regular line of business.

Toby made no reply, for he knew that