ABOUT BUYING A HORSE. 123 



have taken a good deal on trust about his Grandmother, 

 " you'd hardly believe it, but she has never had the measles/j 



At this phenomenon, I exclaim, " Really?" 



" It's a fact," says Gloppin, shaking his head decisively ; 

 " my Grandmother has never had the measles, and I'm no: 

 sure whether she ever had the whooping-cough. Medical 

 men say that to catch either, at her age, is most dangerous '^ 



" But," I suggest, " surely these are ills which only ex- 

 tremely youthful flesh is heir to 1 " 



" There's the danger," returns Gloppin. " She's all right 

 now, but, should she get into her second childhood, what 

 medically, is there against her having her first childhood's 

 illnesses, overdue, as it were, and with accumulated interest, 

 eh ? " 



I confess his reasoning seems correct, though, someho7u, 

 not quite right someivhere. There's a flaw in the premJsses. 



Happy Thought {in Note-Book). — Several floors on the 

 premises. (Work this out, and make it into some story 

 about Sheridan and his son having an argument in a lodging- 

 house.) 



The long and short of all this is, that Gloppin doesn't 

 come. 



My Aunt is nervously afraid that Gloppin's Grandmother 

 is ill again, and observes that she (my Aunt) would rather 

 not go out in the trap with the new cob. 



Happy Thought. — I'll drive over to Trott, the vet's, and 

 ask him what his opinion is. 



