The Sport of Our Jincestors 



So they returned into the Httle parlour, and stirred up 

 the fire, and finished the bottle of old sherry ; nor is it 

 necessary to remark that with the concluding glass of that 

 generous fluid the roan became the property of John 

 Standish Sawyer, under the following somewhat compli- 

 cated agreement : — That he was to give an immediate cheque 

 for a hundred and forty pounds, and ten pounds at the 

 end of the season ; which latter donation was to be in- 

 creased to twenty if he should sell him for anything over 

 two hundred — a contingency which the dealer was pleased 

 to observe amounted to what he called ' a moral.' 



The new owner went to look at him once more in the 

 stable, and thought him the nicest horse he ever saw in his 

 life. The walk home, too, was delightful, till the sherry 

 had evaporated, when it became rather tedious ; and at 

 dinner-time Mr. Sawyer was naturally less hungry than 

 thirsty. All the evening, however, he congratulated him- 

 self on having done a good day's work. All night, too, he 

 dreamed of the roan ; and on waking resolved to call him 

 * Hotspur.' 



When the horse came home next day he certainly looked 

 rather smaller than his new owner had fancied. Old Isaac, 

 too, growled out his untoward opinion that he ' looked a 

 sort as would work very light' But then Isaac always 

 grumbled — it was the old groom's way of enjoying himself. 



78 



