out on the pavement to give cautious advice. The
would-be Yeoman would become more and more nervous, while his comrades
rode by with jeering glances, and the passengers stood still. Little
boys would begin to whoop and hurrah, and a crowd, even at this early
hour, would gather round to enjoy the experiment. "Hey, Nancy! get me a
kitchen chair," the town-bred Yeoman at last would say in desperation to
his elderly commiserating maid-servant in the distance; and from that
steady halfway stand he would climb into the saddle with a groan, settle
himself sack fashion, and, working the bridle laboriously with his arms,
trot off, to return very saddle-sick.

Then some stubborn young fellow, possessed with the notion of showing
off a dashing horse, would insist on riding a vicious, almost dangerous
animal, which would on no account endure the sight of his flaming
regimentals on the occasions of his mountings and dismountings. Once in
the saddle, he would master it thoroughly, and pay it back in kind with
whip and spur, compelling the furious beast to face a whole line of red
coats, and wheel, march, charge, and halt, with perfect correctness. But
the horse would have its moment of revenge as its rider leapt to and
from the saddle. If it encountered the scarlet and the glitter of brass
and steel, at that instant it would get quite wild, paw the air, fling
out its hoofs, snort and dart off wildly, to the danger of its own and
its master's life. But the young soldier would not be beat. Day after
day the contest would be renewed. At length he would resort to a
compromise, and his groom would bring out the animal with its head
ignominiously muffled in a sack; and now the Yeoman would mount with
comparative safety.

But the bugle is sounding to drill in the early summer morning.
Tra-li-la! the clear music suits with the songs of the birds and the dew
on the grass. The last lagging Yeoman is off, gone to receive a public
reprimand from his strict commanding officer, but sure to have the
affront rubbed out next morning by a similar fault, and a similar
experience, on the part of a comrade.

The drill ends at the common breakfast hour, when the Yeoman may be
supposed to return and feast sumptuously. Then "civil" work commences.
Yeomen who had offices or shops, attended them with slight relics of
their uniform. A stranger might have been pardoned had he imagined an
invasion was daily expected, or that an intestine war was on the point