PERFORMANCE OF A BUCKER.
"It was very different the next morning when a new chum went in to catch a horse. With the aid of a black boy he cornered it off in the yard, and then, with the bridle over his arm, approached it slowly and with soothing words, which might as well have been addressed to a grisly bear. Australian horses are cruelly treated all their lives, and consequently they nearly all have vicious tempers, on which kindness is wholly thrown away. The horse immediately understood the man to be a stranger in the country, and proceeded to act accordingly. The expression of his eye and the droop of his quarters were not to be misunderstood; and just as the man put out his hand with the bridle, the horse gave a snort and a rush, knocking down his would-be captor, and then galloped round and round the yard with his tail in the air.
"Again the man got the horse in a corner, and just as he was about getting the bridle into place the brute put his head over the fence, where it could not possibly be reached, and at the same time spitefully threw his heels in the air in a way that made the new chum look out for his safety. Three or four other attempts were made, to the great delight of the old hands, who always sit on the fence and watch the performance until they grow weary of laughing; then they come to the relief of the novice, and saddle and bridle the horse for him at once.
THE MILKING YARD.
"After the horse had been saddled the new chum tried to mount him. He got safely into the saddle, but hardly was he seated before the beast begun to 'buck,' as we call it in America, or 'buck jump,' as it is designated here. The horse brought his head and all his feet together, arched his back till it resembled a section of the dome of a church, and then jumped up, down, sidewise, forward, backward, and in every other direction in very rapid succession. The man was a good rider, and managed to stick until the horse lay down and tried to roll over him, when he slid out of the saddle and gave up.