This command seemed needless, as it was exactly what Toby was trying
to do; but as it was given he struggled all the harder, until it
seemed to him that the more he tried the less did he succeed.
And this first lesson progressed in about the same way until the
hour was over, save that now and then Mr. Castle would give him
some good advice, but oftener he would twist the long lash of the
whip around the boy's legs with such force that Toby believed the
skin had been taken entirely off.
It may have been a relief to Mr. Castle when this first lesson
was concluded, and it certainly was to Toby, for he had had all
the teaching in horsemanship that he wanted, and he thought, with
deepest sorrow, that this would be of daily occurrence during all
the time that he remained with the circus.
As he went out of the tent he stopped to speak with his friend
the old monkey, and his troubles seemed to have increased when he
stood in front of the cage calling, "Mr. Stubbs! Mr. Stubbs!" and
the old fellow would not even come down from off the lofty perch
where he was engaged in monkey gymnastics with several younger
companions. It seemed to him, as he afterward told Ben, "as if Mr.
Stubbs had gone back on him because he knew that he was in trouble."
When he went toward the booth Mr. Lord looked at him around the
corner of the canvas -- for it seemed to Toby that his employer
could look around a square corner with much greater ease than he
could straight ahead -- with a disagreeable leer in his eye, as
though he enjoyed the misery which he knew his little clerk had
just undergone.
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