THE DAILY LIFE OF OUR FARM. 215 



partridge, she assumed to throw me off the scent of 

 her intending anything, she asked me to advance her 

 half-a-crown, on the security of what think you ? Why, 

 a loose tooth ! They get that amount paid on the 

 extraction of certain difficult fangs, and I find now that 

 she has been patiently working to loosen three, which 

 she values at six shillings, for some days past. As her 

 object was to go shares with a wealthier sister in the 

 purchase of a present for their governess, after due 

 admonition I advanced the cash, with which she 

 instantly made off. I hear that Mademoiselle is 

 delighted to-day, but I notice further there are no 

 operations going on for the undermining of the teeth. 

 Here she trips just along the passage, and I must 

 change the subject, for she is sure to peep over my 

 shoulder unless I stay my pen for a game of romps, 

 which I have not time to indulge in. We have just 

 been sending off in gi-eat state a fat little Shetland 

 pony, which has educated two families, to my certain 

 knowledge, and is said to be verging on thirty years of 

 age. He is hopelessly broken -winded, but galloped 

 after the hounds with a youngster on him, the other 

 day, with great gusto. We have another of a larger 

 sort coming on, and in consequence a little friend has 

 got an unexpected present. A companion of his, an 

 old pet mare, heavy in foal, met with an accident 

 yesterday, that might have proved fatal to herself or 

 foal, or both. The youngsters had driven the lot into 

 a comer, confined by wire fencing, with a view to get 

 an extempore ride each ; whereupon this unhappy 

 mare, fearing more than the ponies did, tried, but 

 unsuccessfully, to leap the wire, chesting one of the 

 uprights, and peeling off a piece of skin some nine 



