THE GREAT FOUR-MILE DAY. 299 
form his master that the faithful creature he bestrode 
had only paused in his career to remonstrate against an 
unintentional, yet serious and glaring personal injury. 
What with the fear of a repetition of the pony’s ca- 
prices, and the well-founded belief that Blannerhassett 
was used up, the public were in an equipoise in regard 
to the result. Betting was going on pretty freely, when 
the horses were summoned to the 
Last Hxat.—The pony showed little change since 
he last “toed the mark,” unless perhaps a dogged alr, 
arising as much from a sense of wrong, as an internal 
speculation as to whether the affair was ever coming to 
an end. ; 
Blannerhassett looked worse than his namesake did 
when charged with high treason. The high-bred steed 
was in no mood to take on airs. He came up panting 
and faint, and in his distress took no notice whatever of 
‘ Boots,” who, as soon as the boy mounted him, mani- 
fested a strange anxiety to push on. In his eagerness 
to get his head out of the way of Jesse’s stick, he actu- 
ally made a false start, and had to be called back. 
When the word was given, “ Boots” got greatly the 
start, It was enough that Jesse held his cudgel so as 
to remind him that it was in readiness; away he scamp- 
ered, regardless alike of the shouts of the multitude, 
and the abuse of the Blannerhassetts, whose horse was 
quite stiff at the go off, and lost ground considerably for 
the first half mile. On getting a little warm, he went 
better, but the pony was in no humor to wait for him. 
