66 BEGGARS ON HORSEBACK. 



and only thing that Miss O'Flannigan desired to 

 see was a Welsh woman in a Welsh hat ; but this, 

 the landlady was forced to admit, was the one 

 and only thing not procurable in Dolgelly. There 

 was the sextoness of the church, an octogenarian, 

 who had preserved her mother's hat — perhaps she 

 would (^o. In half an hour Miss O'Flannigan was 

 driving the octogenarian before her, carrying a 

 band-box as old and yellow as herself; and the 

 rest of the morning was spent in the seclusion of 

 the hotel garden, where, seated on an upturned 

 bucket, the octogenarian balanced the heirloom 

 upon her spotted cap, while Miss O'Flannigan 

 produced studies of her that were more forcible 

 than polite. 



I, no less enjoyably to myself, sat on a wheel- 

 barrow in the stable, and laid down the law to 

 the landlord, the ostler, and the saddler about 

 "chambering" the stuffing of one of the saddles 

 so as to fit certain swellings which had appeared 

 on Tom's back, which might be the result of 

 warbles, or of an ill-fitting saddle, or of the sudden 



