A Farmer’s Life 
The nearest thing to happiness I ever saw in 
him was one market-day, when, with him and 
Mr. Smith, I went into a market inn, where Mr. 
Bachelor sat down as if having a really interesting 
afternoon. 
The time was near Christmas. ‘There had 
been a show of fat cattle in the market, with a 
prize offered for the nearest estimate of the weight 
of the prize beast. Here Mr. Bachelor was no 
longer a nobody. On the contrary, he was widely 
acknowledged (Mr. Smith told me) as one of the 
best judges of cattle in the distriét. And he 
had justified the opinion of him that very day. 
He had not won the prize, but his estimate had 
been right within a pound or two. Others 
looked upon him with some respeét therefore. 
There had been betting on the event. It 
provoked Mr. Bachelor to enunciate a favourite 
axiom: ‘A bet well laid is three-parts won.” 
This he repeated, and told in proof an anecdote 
relating to a tall man—some Mr. X. or other 
from Alton, whom the company seemed to know. 
In a Farnham inn, Mr. X. being present, a 
certain keen hand, also known to the company, 
had staked a guinea on it that Mr. X. was not 
the tallest man in Alton. Others, reckoning 
on an easy guinea, had taken up the challenge, 
until the keen hand had got five or six guineas 
laid against him. At last, there being no one 
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