C!k dTarmer'jg Cup. 



who could reckon some forty summers, declared, 

 *' As he'd like to ride as he was, but times weren't 

 good enough for such as he to buy no racing togs !" 

 Others said, "What's the use of running our horses 

 against such as Bill Hicks, the dealer, and Harry 

 Makesafe have got ? " and with apparent reason, 

 as for the last few years one or other of these 

 celebrities (as arranged) had invariably pocketed the 

 prizes offered at the local meetings for the Farmer's 

 Competition, although their farms were to them, it 

 is scarcely necessary to add, of very secondary 

 consideration financially. 



Whether it was owing to the strength of " mine 

 Host's " whiskey, or otherwise, I will not venture 

 to assert, but certain it is that an usually silent old 

 gentleman, plentifully enveloped, as to the neck, 

 in a blue bird's-eye choker, who had hitherto puffed 

 steadily at his pipe almost unobserved, now vigor- 

 ously thumped the table, and with a very expressive 

 substitute for an actual oath, thus addressed the 

 company present : 



" Blarm me if I aint ashamed on yer all, after 

 the old Squire has been and given you a Cup and 

 Fifty Sovereigns to run for; and the entrance fee 

 be next to nout." ''There's new conditions," he 

 continued, " and it aint no such certainty for they 

 schemers as you mention. Blarmed if my old mare 



