38 STABLE SECRETS. 



" You'd be in a pretty form to be pulled out for the Two 

 Thou', you'd be, if it wasn't for this," remarked Puffy Doddles, 

 releasing the strap which held the instrument like a large leather 

 thimble over Sunshine's jaws and nostrils. " Cut short your 

 'lowance of hay," continued he, " and ye go to straw as if it was 

 beans. Talk about grubbing, / don't believe a greater grubber 

 ever grubbed. I don't, indeed — I don't upon my religious word 

 of honour." 



Sunshine, at this particular juncture of the earth's evolution 

 upon her axis, made a playful snap at a certain part of Puffy 

 Doddles' person, which he found well-constituted for sitting upon, 

 and catching a loose or disengaged part of the drab cloth 

 breeches, raised him suddenly, if not gracefully, from the ground. 

 As if conscious, however, of having committed an act of viola- 

 tion of the recognised laws of politeness, the son of Glitter and 

 Comet opened his jaws in that brief space of time known as a 

 twinkling, and dropped his more than a mouthful as if some- 

 what too hot to hold. 



" Come, I say," ejaculated Eobert Top's best lad, in a tone 

 and manner scarcely to be called his own ; " what are ye up to 

 now ? Going to swaller a feller ? " inquired he, as he gained his 

 perpendicular, and felt for damages. 



Sunshine evinced a prompt admission of having no real in- 

 tention of swallowing the most exemplary of stable lads, or to 

 injure any part of the raiment which covered him, and conveyed 

 this assurance by rubbing, in a gentle, conciliatory manner, the 

 side of his head against his attendant's shoulder. 



" That's all very well, ye know," said Puffy Doddles, soothed, 

 but not perfectly appeased. "That's all very well, ye know,'* 

 repeated he, still feeling for damages, " but supposin', ye know, 

 you'd — eh 1 — taken a mouthful. What would there have been 

 left, I should like to know V 



Sunshine, perhaps, had he understood the comprehensive 

 nature of the interrogatory, might have replied, " Take nooning 

 from nothing, and nothing remains." As it was, however, he 



