Page:Between Two Loves.djvu/43

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BETWEEN TWO LOVES.

of those sturdy Suffolk punches that can be driven one hundred and ten miles in eleven hours; the very best horse in the world before a whip; the only one that will pull twice at a dead weight. Jonathan was very fond of horses, and was very kind to them. It was only his strong religious instincts which had prevented him from being a jockey. "When I was young," he often said, "I was all for horses! My word, I could sit anything, and jump anything right and left! There was Squire Oxley's Rampagious; no one could mount him, and he sent for me. Rampagious stared at me, and I stared at him, then I leaped upon his back and rode him to Oxleyholme, twenty-eight miles!"

Outside his mill Jonathan was never more thoroughly happy than when he was driving a fine horse, and this afternoon, anxious and worried as he was, he felt a certain amount of relief as soon as the reins were in his hand, and he knew himself bowling away into pleasant country lanes. Swift motion seemed, at first, to be just what he most needed, but after a hard run of two miles he felt more inclined to take the distance easily. He was in a lovely road, shaded by branching limes and great elms, in