Page:The Writings of Prosper Merimee-Volume 5.djvu/319

THE HUSSAR 293 "And sure enough, there stood a horse hefore me. He pawed the ground and was eager to be off, his neck arched and his tail up in the air.

"I got on his back; I looked for the reins, but there were none. He started and galloped away and in no time I found myself before our stove.

"I looked about, everything was in its place. I was astride, not a horse, but an old bench. . . . And such are the things that happen in those countries."

He pulled at his mustache and ended with: "You blockhead, begging your pardon, you think you know it all, but you are a green-horn and you never saw what I saw."