GEOKGE SPINDLES. 15 



"Yes," resumed George Spindles, pressing his lips together, 

 "I've done myself credit so far; but" — and here the speaker 

 drew his legs up spasmodically — " if I could only have stopped 

 short in my growth, and kept my fat down, I should have been 

 a good deal higher. The best mounts in the kingdom would 

 have been mine." 



" Would they really, sir V returned Puffy Doddles, in a tone 

 and manner combining great commiseration. " I began to be 

 seized." continued he, "just in the same way, getting, as Mr. 

 Top said, fatter and fatterer every day ; but physic, work, and 

 starvation soon cured me." 



"What's your weight ?" abruptly asked George Spindles. 



" In my shirt," replied Puffy Doddles, " five-stun-nine." 



" Keep that dark for the present," added the head lad of the 

 Great Stable of the North, with knitted brow and a look of 

 authority. " Keep that dark, I say, for the present," repeated he. 



Puffy Doddles promptly declared that, " if his own mother 

 were alive, she should not be made acquainted with his weight, 

 even if she went down on her bless-ed knees to obtain the 

 information." 



"You've heard, I s'pose," said George Spindles, "that 

 when there's no hanky-panky going on, the secret of a race 

 lies in the weights and scales." 



Puffy Doddles had heard as much. 



" Then keep your own weight dark for the present," reite- 

 rated George Spindles, with great sternness of tone and manner 

 combined with mystery. 



A most emphatic promise being given that these instruc- 

 tions should be observed to the strict letter of their true intent 

 and meaning, the head lad of the Great Stable of the North 

 appeared satisfied upon the point, and the subject dropped by 

 mutual consent. 



A more fitting opportunity, perhaps, may not present itself 

 than now for photographing the external appearance of George 

 Spindles. 



