SUNSHINE "SCRATCHED." 41 



through which the moon's rays shine unimpeded, vanished as 

 " the dusky night rolled down the sky and ushered in the morn." 

 Instead of shades and shadows, phantoms, sprites, hobgoblins, 

 elf, fay, and fairy having possession of the heath, solid inhabi- 

 tants of the earth brushed the glittering dewdrops from the 

 green sward, and flushed the lark to shake her wing in the 

 early morning sun. Newmarket was awake betimes ; but not 

 too soon for the clearing up of certain mysteries in which New- 

 market felt itself deeply interested. Before that frequently- 

 quoted bird, the early one of the feathered family, had completed 

 his breakfast, Newmarket arrived at the positive conclusion that 

 one of the two horses from the Great Stable of the North would 

 pull off the Two Thousand Guineas. Upon the early one of the 

 feathered family preening his plumage and polishing his beak 

 upon a convenient twig, by way of announcement that he had 

 finished his matin meal, Newmarket had satisfied its doubts and 

 quieted its fears concerning which of the two horses from the 

 Great Stable of the North had been selected to pull off the Two 

 Thousand Guineas. "Sunshine, by Glitter, dam Comet, by 

 Ealling Star, went like a bird. He could give Catch-me-who- 

 can 71b. and a beating. Pulled double, and he'd win as he liked, 

 with plenty to spare, and a little over. Bar accident, and the 

 race was over. Nothing remained but shouting." 



Before the early bird had quite digested his breakfast, it 

 was announced, on unquestionable authority, that Sunshine was 



SCRATCHED. 



CHAPTER VII. 



" Newmarket " was astonished. " The Ping " felt itself 

 bound to confess "to have been fairly taken by surprise." 

 " The public ' : was plunged, in a figurative sense, up to the 

 very eyelids in " the hole." Puffy Doddles sat upon his accus- 

 tomed seat, the bottom of a stable-pail, and wiped away not 



