JUajor Whyte Jllelville 



hit upon the animal at last. Often as he had been at the 

 game, and often as he had been disappointed, he was still 

 sanguine enough to believe he might draw the prize-ticket 

 in the lottery at any time. As I imagine every man who 

 pulls on his boots to go out hunting has a sort of vague 

 hope that to-day may be his day of triumph with the hounds, 

 so the oldest and wariest of us cannot go into a dealer's yard 

 without a sort of half-conscious idea that there must be a 

 trump card somewhere in the pack, and it may be our luck 

 to hold it as well as another's. 



But Sloper, like the rest of his trade, was not going to 

 show his game first. It seems to be a maxim with all sales- 

 men to prove their customers with inferior articles before 

 they come to the real thing. Mr. Sawyer had to walk 

 through a four-stall stable, and inspect, preparatory to 

 declining, a mealy bay cob, a lame grey, a broken- winded 

 chestnut, and an enormous brown animal, very tall, very 

 narrow, very ugly, with extremely upright forelegs and 

 shoulders to match. The latter his owner affirmed to be 

 ' an extraordinary shaped un,' as no doubt he was. A little 

 playful badinage on the merits of this last enlivened the 

 visit. 



' What will you take for the brown, Sloper, if I buy him 

 at so much the foot ? ' said the customer, as they emerged 

 into the fresh air. 



' Say ten pound a foot, sir ! ' answered Job, with the 

 utmost gravity, * and ten over, because he always has ajoot to 

 spare. Come now, Mr. Sawyer, I can afford to let a good 



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