"Let one of your grooms go and get a Yorkshire weaver's strap that will go once round the animal's body, and at the same time catch up the animal's leg,--and fasten it with a stout Birmingham buckle, so that the power shall be exerted in the leg bone without the fetlock or the foot; and I think your Reverence will be able to show to all the world _how to ride a horse on three legs_." "Good! good! Let it be done immediately: I verily believe it can be done." It literally was done, and in one hour Doctor Greathead showed that he himself was alive again. He mounted his favourite gray; and though the animal laid its ears, and lifted up its hind quarters, rather higher than usual, it went; and did perform what the Doctor never expected it to do again--namely, carried him a mile on the Carlisle road, and that without a fall. It did the Doctor good whenever he did ride it. How often that was, we have no record to tell us. He paid the Doctor of Medicine and his friend John Tattsall more than would have purchased three fine Yorkshire horses. In fact he paid for his whim. He was cured of his whim. And Doctor Gambado and his friend John returned to town satisfied. If men have fancies, bugbears of the mind, And money, too, to pay for what they want; Why should they not, like Doctor Greathead, find Their fancies made to profit more than cant? We all have fancies! what more should we say, Than if we would indulge them, we must pay? [Illustration] CHAPTER VI. _Tricks upon Travellers._ The descent from the sublime to the ridiculous is a very easy transition in this mortal life. Even in the moments of utmost seriousness, we have seen something flit across the vision of the brain, or eye, or the spirit, that for a moment diverts the current of thought from the simplicity of the most devout and earnest Christian. Every moment we learn a new lesson of life and thought, from nature or from grace. Thoughts are continually arising as to the probability of doing anyone any good, in these narratives. They form a diversion of thought, and much must depend upon the disposition of the mind of the reader. A good man will make some good out of every thing, and a bad man will find nothing good in anything. To look simply at the picture, and to laugh at it, is easy; but to say, that they who played tricks upon others deserved to be whipped out of them, might be easier said than done.