THE PAIXTED LIT. 103 



interests of the firm would be best sei-vecl oy my vamiing an 

 event, and all matters had been pleasantly " squared," I took 

 heartfelt pleasure in spoiling the entii-e arrangement by defying 

 every effort either to persuade or force me to start an inch from 

 the post, and generally concluded the affair by bucking Jack 

 Swiggle clean from the saddle, and sending that tormenting 

 dirty-shirted youth skimming in the hair like an oyster-shell. 

 My bad temper, as it was called, proved a fruitful source of 

 mischief to the designs of the joint-stock company. The exple- 

 tives which flew from the tongue of " the proprietor of a third" 

 upon such occasions were of a truly awful character; but if his 

 staring, fiery eyeballs, and swollen, purple cheeks, might be re- 

 ceived as indicative of the intense state of his feelings, then 

 reasonable is the conjecture that, without such a vent, Jemmy 

 Clever must, like an overcharged balloon, have burst asunder, 

 and possibly collapsed. 



" To think," said he, one day when I had returned to my 

 stable, after running away with a race in direct opposition to the 

 intentions of a mournfully disappointed set of " sporting clia.rac- 

 ters ;" " to think," repeated Jemmy in a whining tone and manner 

 of extreme prostration of spirit, " that here we've got a hoss as 

 can do anything a' most, and yet" — " the proprietor of a third" 

 expressed a vehement desire that he might then and there be 

 bereft of vitality — " he won't do nothing. It's enough to make 

 a cove wish he'd never had a nearer she relation than an old 

 aunt : that is, he'd never been born." 



"I've been put on some rum 'uns," said Jack Svvaggle, ap- 

 proaching my head, pail in hand, with great caution ; for I made 

 it a rule to threaten that young light of the turf with an exhi- 

 bition of my natural powers of attack and defence whenever he 

 came near, learning, from experience that, in order to keep his 

 propensities to annoy me in check, there was nothing so effective 

 as throwing my ears back, and moving my heels point-blank in 

 the direction of the spot he occupied. " I've been put on and 

 looked after some rum-uns," said my attendant, casting his eyes 

 alternately from my ears to my heels, " but I never was put on 

 or looked after such a varmint afore. As to kicking, I've seen. 



