106 THE LIFE OP A RACEHORSE. 



sooner lie's out of our division tlie better, I say — tlie ill- 

 tempered, wicious brute ! " 



^' Oh, yes, I see ! " exclaimed Jemmy Clever. " You've got 

 an eye to your bones ; / aint ; " and with this observation " the 

 proprietor of a third" cleared his bronchial tubes, and rolled 

 his bulky form from the precincts of the stable door. 



" I may think o' them bones o' mine," said Jack with 

 a chuckle, upon the departure of his master ; " and with good 

 reason, too, considerin' they ache from morning to night from 

 the purls you've given me, you ill-tempered, wicious brute,'* 

 continued he, shaking his clenched fist, at the same time, 

 however, taking the precaution of backing several feet further 

 from where I stood. " I do think o' my precious bones," con- 

 tinued he ; " but there's something else I think of more," and 

 he gave a significant tap at the bottom of a pocket in the 

 corduroys, wliich caused a mixture of copper and silver coin of 

 the realm to chink harmoniously together. " That's the stuff I 

 think of most," soliloquised Jack Swiggle ; " the ready ; the 

 tin ; the rowdy ; the pewter ; the Californians ; the mopusses — 

 that's yer ticket for soup ! " and extracting a half-crown from a 

 side pocket in the corduroy, he spun it with a ringing sound 

 high above his head, and, catching it dextrously in the palm of 

 a hand, spat upon the profile of a departed monarch, and 

 returned it to the depths from whence it came. 



For a few minutes my attendant ceased to give expression 

 to the hidden sentiments of his bosom, and seemed to be cogi- 

 tating as a preliminary to so doing. The pause, however, was 

 not of long duration, and he then continued — 



" You'll not win the Ladies' Plate at Leicester, let who will 

 be up, and your temper like a hangel's at the post. I and 

 Harry Dale — a reg'lar bricksy-wicksy is Harry Dale !" said he, 

 by way of introducing a parenthesis of admiration — "stand 

 against yer, and we intend to make it a certainty this time. 

 Yes, yes, I'll take care o' that. The cross shan't turn out to 

 be the square for the Ladies' Plate at Leicester, and if the 

 guv'nor's a delooded fool enough to run yer to win, that's his 

 look out ; not mine." 



