A DANGEROUS TRICK. 15 



'* !N"ot exactly amiss, Sir Digby," replied our head gi-oom, 

 diving his unemployed hand into one of the sacks with which 

 his capacious drab knee-breeches were furnished. " Not exactly 

 amiss, Sir Digby," replied he, separating his remarkably short 

 legs by a full yard ; " but he's got the trick o' the old mare 

 in'm, as sure as I am a sinner, although I could never bring my 

 mind to think a miserable one." 



" Then we shall never be able to depend upon him," rejoined 

 Sir Digby, in a mortified tone. " His dam was properly called 

 Dangerous, for it was always even betting whether she would 

 start, or buck her jockey clean from her back, like a shuttlecock 

 from the stroke of a battledore." 



" Ha ! " ejaculated Robert, bending a fixed gaze upon the 

 topmast twig of a neighbouring tree, " I think I feel myself 

 now a-goin to grass in the shape of a cocked hat. There's 

 scarcely a bone in my skin, Sir Digby," continued he, with 

 great apparent satisfaction at the reminiscence, " but what the 

 old mare broke at one time or another." 



"She certainly was anything but considerate to you," 

 observed his master. 



" And yet, to say I'd ridden such a flyer," returned our 

 head groom, with the crimson in his cheeks becoming many 

 shades brighter, " I'd a broken my precious neck as short as a 

 carrot, Sir Digby. I'm a-gettin' into the wale o' years ; but 

 my feelin's," and Eobert gave a kind of double knock just 

 under the conspicuous gold horse-shoe in his cravat, "are as 

 green as turnip-tops. We've got the old pink in the seedlin'," 

 continued he, extending the palm of an open hand towards me 

 as he spoke. "There he stands, with her wirtues and her 



wices, but " our head groom made a most effective pause, 



and then added, with particular emj^hasis, " a race-oss." 



" But a dangerous one, remember," remarked my owner, 

 smiling. 



"That's his blood," responded Eobert ; "and it's won- 

 derful what runs in blood, 'specially in thorough-breds. I've 

 seen the same ways, the same faults, the same stones — so to 



