BECOMES A CAB HORSE. Ill 



clfN^e to my head he stoops down, and, examining my legs, 

 bursts into a roar. " Why, he can scarcely stand ! " 



" Stand or drop," replies my driver in a decided tone, " when 

 warm he can go fourteen mile an hour." 



"Walker ! " rejoins the critic. 



" I don't know his pedigree, where he came from, or what 

 he's done," resumes my driver. " He's been tlu-ough too many 

 'ands, p'ra^ps, for that to be known now; but a better bit 

 of stuff, / should say, was never bred." 



" Then if so davelhh. good," returns the sceptic, getting into 

 the cab, " let us see the shortest time he can do it in to the Old 

 Hat at Healing." 



jMy driver, knowing the value of his fare, climbs with alacrity 

 to his seat, and throwing the point of the thong with stinging effect 

 between the collar and saddle of my harness, I leap forward, 

 and wliirl the wheels round so that not a spoke can be seen. 



The forgotten, worn-out race-horse has told his tale ; but at 

 the time of his bringing it to a close, little could be the con- 

 jecture that a far more pleasing scene might be truthfully added 

 as " the finish." 



There is a wide-spreading chestnut tree in the centre of a 

 paddock, throwing for yards around a deep and sombre shade. 

 The boughs are thicker and taller grown than when an old brood 

 mare stood beneath them with one ear thrown back, and the 

 other pricked, idly switching her flanks with the point of her 

 fine and silky tail. And yet in the same spot, and in the very 

 same posture, stands a horse bearing a close resemblance to 

 that old brood mare. 



Within a short distance, with his arms buried to their 

 elbows in the pockets of his breeches, and a badger-pied cap 

 jauntingly placed upon his head so as to show the remaining 

 locks are thin and bleached, a man remains balancing himself 

 with his legs stretched far apart, and his eyes riveted in pro- 

 found admiration upon the horse. 



" The old blood," he remarks, « the old blood ! " 



Away, across the undulated park, beyond those towering 



