63 



tinued Johnny, "I thought I couldn't do better than lay 

 against him, and had a good mind to send out a commission to 

 pepper him like blue blazes." 



" But you didn't ? " said Mr. James Sloper, checking his 

 laugh. 



" As luck would have, I didn't," responded Johnny ; " but " 

 — and here he looked as serious as if the risk incurred was 

 much too hazardous to be pleasant — " I was as near as a 

 toucher, so help me potaters ! " 



" No matter," cried Sunshine's trainer ; " on the post by a 

 short head does for me as well as a clear length, or twenty 

 lengths, for that matter. Fill your glass, Johnny. I'll order 

 a fresh bottle." 



CHAPTER XII. 



Doncaster was in her holiday gear. Doncaster had donned 

 her best bib and tucker. The mayor and corporation of 

 Doncaster — especially the mayor — felt what the weight and 

 care of office really were during the great Doncaster meeting, 

 and did not hesitate to declare deep sympathy with the Czar of 

 all the Russias, to say nothing of the manifold duties of the 

 Secretary of State for the Home Department. The High 

 Street, as was its wont, on the great day of the great meeting, 

 looked proud of itself, and totally indifferent to the vanity dis- 

 played in the bye-streets, adjacent to, leading from, and bounded 

 by the main artery of the corporate town of Doncaster. Flags 

 of many colours, tints, and hues flaunted in the breeze, and 

 merry peals of bells sent forth their silvery music, announcing 

 as plainly as metal tongues could speak that it was the " Leger 

 Day." If all Yorkshire were not present, a large portion of 

 that northern community had resolved to be witnesses of the 

 anticipated triumph of the " Great Stable of the North," and 

 recreant and renegade would he have been deemed to his faith 



