1 1 2 TALES OF THE TURF AND THE CHASE. 



could not help showing my astonished face to my father. He 

 turned away, explaining the entry by — 



' Your mother's afraid of you with her ' (meaning the mare). 



I submitted to be thus saddled with the blame as gracefully 

 as I could. 



But there was no such luck as to be rid of her so easily. She 

 was as well known among the gentlemen with the knowing little 

 tufts and the tight trousers — ay, and among the farmers too — as 

 any lady who has been defamed is when she ventures into 

 society : she was infamously well known. And she stood in the 

 yard, with her innocent little son, quiet and placable, as meek 

 as milk. It was no doubt to her a matter of indifference who 

 possessed her, if she was left undisturbed in the enjoyment of 

 her small maternal cares, and of the sweetest of grass and other 

 provender. 



And, of course, in a little while every mortal man and boy 

 knew her bad points and her vices off by heart. If one man 

 did not know quite all, others (who had never spoken to the 

 man in their lives before) strove for the pleasure of pouring into 

 his ears their gratuitous information. The deuce ! it made me 

 quite wroth. Two men were talking her over quite openly. 

 Some little distance off another man was eyeing her with the 

 dubious balanced look of a possible bidder, when suddenly he 

 o\-erheard from the others a derisive, ' Unbroken ! Ha, ha ! 

 Why, she,' &c. They were turning away, when the man in 

 alarm sidled up to them. Did he just — did they know anything 

 of that mare with the foal ? Did they ? They hoped they did ! 

 Ha, ha ! I grew more and more angry. Why could they not 

 "■ive the poor brute a chance for her — sale } One of them was 

 arrested in the full flow of imparting all he knew by chancing 

 to cast his eye over his shoulder and observe me. ' Sh !' said 

 he, ' his son !' ' Where ?' asked the stranger ; and when he 

 knew, he stared at me as if I were a pestilent swindler, till I 

 turned away red with rage and confusion. 



But when the old gentleman in green spectacles and white 

 gaiters asked the boy who was standing with the mare whether 

 she went quietly when ridden, and the boy replied, ' O, bless you, 

 yes, sir ; why, I rode uv 'er over 'ere myself this morning, an' she 

 went as quiet as a lamb,' I chuckled with delight, though I knew 

 that boy would not dare to lift a leg towards her. I, at least, 

 did not register the lie against the boy, it was told in so good a 

 cause. 



