06 TALES AND TRAITS OF SPORTING LIFE. 



liiing" so heavy on my hand, and went in such a 

 mechanical, deadly-hvely manner^ that I was all but 

 <3onYinced I had been judg'ing too hastily : — uncertain at 

 timber, a resolute refuser, want of bottom, and a bad 

 mouth. 



'' Come, come, Peter, my boy !" said I, clapping to him 

 again, on entering one of those doomed domains of the 

 public, an open common — ^^Come, come, it will never do 

 to go and rub out all the fine things we have been per- 

 forming to-da}^ in this fashion !" For a few strides he 

 answered me gallantly enough ; but the roads, cross- 

 a'oads, diggings for turf, and deep cart ruts, soon brought 

 us to the trot again • in which he at length made a mis- 

 take, and, after tottering forward for a few yards, fell, 

 without caring to recover himself, heavily on his side. 

 I was on my legs in an instant, and catching short hold 

 of his bridle, endeavoured, but in vain, to rouse him to a 

 like position. Directly I loosened the rein, his head 

 dropped perfectly inanimate, and, with a deep groan, or 

 rather sigh, he stretched himself out in a way that at 

 once stopt me from any further attempt." 



" He's dead beat, sure enough," thought I aloud, 

 after looking at him for a minute or so in silence. 



** Hur's dead enough any-hows," responded a country- 

 man at my shoulder ; who seemed, like one of the armed 

 men of old, to have risen from the earth at a moment's 

 notice. " Hur's dead enough anyhow, I reckon." 



*' Good heavens ! d'ye think so ?" 



'' No, I don't; I be sure on't." 



He nas ! and then all the events of the day at once 

 came across me : the two or three hours' work in the 

 sticky rides of the cover, the subsequently terrific pace 

 and distance we had travelled, the indisputable style in 



