6 Tom S])ring's Back Parlour. 



say to myself, ' Spring, yon worked hard for that money ; 

 keep it in your j^ocket.' " 



If Spring's lectures about card-playing, gambling, and 

 other evils could all be remembered, they would do young 

 England good in these days, when so many foolish boys who 

 get afloat in the world are ruining themselves with brandy- 

 and-soda, pool-plapng and betting ; and I feel certain that 

 I owe it to Tom Spring's advice that I hardly ever won or 

 lost a sovereign at cards or in betting in my life. 



" Well, governor," I said to him sometimes, " Avhy do you 

 bet yourself?" 



Spring used to shake his head and say, " You mind what 

 the parson said — ' You do as I say ; don't do what / do.^ 

 The fact is that when I used to fight I carried hundreds and 

 thousands of other people's money ; and when I had it, I 

 used to put on some of my own ; and I suppose what is bred 

 in the bone must come out in the flesh. And then, I am 

 very fond of a horse, and I do like to back my fancy some- 

 times, and to back a man, too, when he is a good one." 



'' Now tell me about fighting and training, and what your 

 experience w^as." 



'• Well, young gentleman, now I will tell you all about 

 it. Training was very hard work, unless you had the luck 

 to have a very cheerful trainer. The first feeling of having 

 nothing to do and a good job in hand was very pleasant, 

 particularly when you got over the stage when a man did 

 not know what thirst was, and health and strength were 

 coming every day ; but the hard work was when you felt 

 fit to fight twenty men, and the day was two or three 

 weeks ofi"; and then sometimes I could see my trainer was 

 fidgety, and I fancied that my backers might be fidgety 

 too, and I would get suspicious, and would think they were 

 keeping my friends away from me, or that too many people 

 came to see me, and were \vi-iting about me in the papers ; 



