DRIVE A NAIL WHERE IT WILL GO. 51 



opinion to the submersion ot the name of Morgan in the 

 loAvest possible depths of degradation. WilUam's chief 

 pleasure, when there were no more tops, marbles, and such 

 like to be won in the town, was to climb the steady slope to 

 the uplands where the horses were doing their work ; and 

 many and many a beating did he get for thus wasting the 

 golden hours. But what cared he ? His skin was tough 

 enough by this time, and a half hour spent in watching 

 the beautiful creatures striding away over the undulating sea 

 of grass was not dearly bought at the price of "a jacket 

 dusting." 



Then there came on the scene a new curate at the parish 

 church, a great, big specimen of brawny, muscular Christianity, 

 with a deep melodious voice, a cheery laugh, and a fine honest 

 face that beamed friendship on everyone. AVilliam Morgan 

 went for him heart and soul. They met by accident one 

 morning in early summer, when three-fourths of the inhabi- 

 tants, including Mr. and Mrs. Morgan, were fast asleep in 

 their beds. It was occasionally William's custom, unknown 

 to his parents, to steal up to the training grounds in the 

 early hours of the morning to see the horses go through their 

 work. Nor was he the only a spectator of what was going on, 

 for besides those directly connected with the business in hand, 

 there were sundry groups of more or less seedy-looking indi- 

 viduals, with or without race glasses, employed in the lucrative 

 occupation (it must be lucrative or it would never flourish as 

 it does) of touting. Occasionally gentlemen connected with 

 the stables put in an appearance on horseback to see their 

 animals do a gallop or to witness a trial ; and it was astonish- 

 ing how the whisper of a trial got wafted on the winds, and 

 what commotion it created in the ranks of the touting 

 fraternity. But one morning AVilliam, from his favourite 

 seat behind some gorse bushes, noticed an unfamiliar figure 

 in the foreground, a big, broad man with a clean shaven face 



