new
arrival on horseback, and eagerly sought permission to hold his horse
when he dismounted; the contrast of these mangy looking attendants to
the glossy coated and handsomely caparisoned steeds they led about
being too remarkable to escape notice. Although a very fierce rivalry
prevailed amongst them, they seemed a species of organized guild,
who constituted a distinct walk in life, and indignantly resented the
attempt of some two or three "voluntaries" who showed a wish to join the
fraternity.

I sat against the rails of the square, studying with some curiosity
little details of their etiquette, and their strange conventionalities.
A regular corps of them stood in front of me, canvassing with all
the eager volubility of their craft for the possession of a handsome
thoroughbred pony, from which a young officer, in a cavalry undress, was
about to dismount.

"I 'm your own boy, Captain! I'm Tim, sir!" cried one, with a leer of
most familiar intimacy.

"'Tis me towld ye about Miss O'Grady, sir," shouted another, preferring
another and stronger claim.

"I'm the boy caught your mare the day ye was thrown, Captain!"
insinuated a third, exhibiting a want of tact in the reminiscence that
drew down many a scoff upon him from his fellows; for these ragged and
starving curs had a most lively sense of the use of flattery.

"Off with you!--stand off!" said the young dragoon, in a threatening
tone; "let that fellow take my mare;" and he pointed to me as I sat,
a patient but unconcerned spectator of the scene. Had a medical
consultation been suddenly set aside on the eve of a great surgical
operation, and the 'knife' committed to the unpractised hand of a new
bystander, the breach of etiquette and the surprise could scarce have
been greater. The gang stared at me with most undisguised contempt, and
a perfect volley of abuse and irony followed me as I hastened to obey
the summons.

It has been very often my fortune in life to take a position for which I
neither had submitted to the usual probationary study, nor possessed
the necessary acquirement; but I believe this my first step in the
very humble walk of a "horse-boy" gave me more pain than ever did any
subsequent one. The criticisms on my dress, my walk, my country look, my
very shoes,--my critics wore none,--were all poignant and bitter; and I
verily believe, such is the force of ridicule, I should have preferred
the rags and squalor of the initiated, at that moment, to t