STABLE SECRETS. 



CHAPTER I. 



Upon Puffy Doddies taking his departure for "The Great 

 Stable of the North," his worldly goods, coming under the head 

 of " luggage," were easily confined within the limits of a small 

 blue and white spotted cotton handkerchief, which, suspended 

 on the crooked end of a straight stick, swung easily over his 

 dexter shoulder. Without any decided exhibition of poetical 

 sentiment being expressed on the part of his equals, either 

 jointly or severally, or any marked emotion exhibited from his 

 superior, Mr. Robert Top, Puffy bade a friendly farewell to the 

 former, and a respectful one to the latter, as he turned upon 

 his heel to quit the scene of his early stable days, and the latch 

 clinking harshly, as the great yard gate slowly swung and 

 closed upon its hinges, seemed to cut him off for ever from 

 the inner world. 



With much greater ease than he would have been disposed 

 to confess, Puffy Doddies could have wept like a child of tender 

 years ; but putting a powerful check upon his inclination, lie 

 quitted the spot with a far more dignified effect of grief. 



" I shall miss 'm," whispered he, dolefully, to himself; " but I 

 wonder whether they '11 miss me ? " and then, in the firm belief 

 that the bottom of the stable pail, on which he had passed so 

 many hours of his life in the saddle-room, or his empty seat in 

 the refectory, wherein he had practised so much self-denial in 

 the reduction of his fat, could scarcely fail to draw kindly 



