GREAT EXPECTATIONS 127 







"Don't you think," queried the Professor, 

 "that the colt may have inherited some of its 

 remarkable qualities from the first dam of Elec- 

 tric Jim, Sukey M. (2.21) ?" 



"Or from the second dam, Wilkes Jane 

 (2.12^) ?" suggested another neighbor. "We 

 all know that the Wilkes blood is highly thought 

 of among horse-breeders." 



As he said this I came to the paddock, and my 

 friends drew apart from me in order to let me 

 feast my eyes on the colt. 



I looked and looked again, and leaned my 

 hands on the fence and stared foolishly. For a 

 moment I could scarcely believe my eyes, for 

 there stood Lady M., her great soft eyes full of 

 love, nuzzling, by all the gods, a long-legged, 

 round-barreled, big-headed mule colt, with the 

 most grotesquely enormous ears I had ever seen. 

 Shades of Balaam and Don Quixote! it looked 

 like a jack-rabbit on stilts. 



I swallowed hastily, looked for a place to sit 

 down, grinned foolishly, and turned to see my 

 friends in various conditions of convulsions. 

 Daniel was shaking like a huge tumbler of jelly ; 

 the Professor was leaning over the fence, holding 

 himself with both hands; my daughter was 

 dancing a grotesque jig ; my son was rolling on 

 the ground ; while the rest of the assemblage were 

 bending and twisting and cackling like lunatics. 



