1 68 HIGHWAYS AND HORSES. 



brown was nearly bet up. I'll go bail she'll travel 

 for me,' he added, getting off the car as he spoke, 

 and giving the collar a hitch. But this proud boast 

 was received in ominous silence, and all eyes were 

 now riveted on Mr. Flood's recent purchase— a white- 

 legged, malicious-looking thorough-bred — that was 

 seemingly not unknown to fame. 



" ' Well,' said a man in a blue-tail coat, after a 

 significantly long pause, ' it's not that she won't travel 

 for ye, there's no fear of that. I hope you may get 

 some good of her, for she's a great mare entirely ; 

 but she takes a power of humouring.' 



•' ' Shure, she knocked Finnigan's new spring car 

 to smithereens, ere last week,' put in the rider of 

 the coarse-looking brown colt ; ' not a bit of it was 

 together but the wheels, and she left Finnigan himself 

 for dead on the road,' he added with a kind of 

 scornful snort. 



"'You got her chape, Til engage, Larry, me 

 darlin',' remarked another of the idlers. 



" ' Faix, and I paid enough for her,' returned her 

 owner stoutly. ' It isen't every man that would 

 sit over her ! She does be a bit unaisy in herself 

 betimes ' (a delicate allusion to her well-known habits 

 of kicking and bolting) ; ' howdsomever, she's a grand 

 goer, and I bought her designedly on purpose for the 

 post. 'Tis she can knock fire out of the road.' 



" ' Oh ! them sprigs of shillelagh can all do that,' 

 acquiesced a bystander, who had hitherto observed 

 a benevolent neutrality ; ' but they does be dangerous 

 bastes.' 



" Larry thereupon turned to the porter with an 

 off-hand air, and said : 



" * Anything for me, Pat ? ' 



