CG • STAELE SECKETS. 



" I could cut his throat ! " added a third, savagely. " It's the 

 stock, all over. The most uncertain brutes that ever looked 

 through bridles : fly when they like, and stand still when 

 they don't ! " 



Mr. James Sloper felt dizzy, and the ground immediately 

 under his feet began to waltz. A ready thought, however, 

 seemed to take possession of his brain as to what was expedient 

 under the pressing emergency of the case. 



"Here," said he, thrusting the saddle into the hands of 

 Puffy Doddles, and relieving him of the reins ; " see what you 

 can do." 



The moment thai, Robert Top's best lad went to Sunshine's 

 near side he became as quiet and tractable as a perfectly broken 

 lady's palfrey. ISoi the smallest objection was evinced to have 

 the saddle placed and girthed upon his back by Puffy Doddles, 

 who completed the task in a manner which both won and 

 commanded +he admiration of all beholders. 



Messrs. Sloper, Spindles, and Johnny, together with " the 

 party," breathed again. 



It was, however, a breath of momentary duration ; for no 

 sooner did the spare and bony figure in the wasp-like colours 

 step forward for the "lift up," than Sunshine wheeled round, 

 as if on a pivot, and sent out his heels in a direct line with the 

 elevation of Johnny's head. So close did those flying, iron-shod 

 heels come to Johnny's head that he felt the sudden puff of 

 wind from them in his face. A short inch closer, and the spare 

 and bony figure in the wasp-like colours would have been 



" A thing 

 O'er which the raven flaps her funeral wing." 



Again and again did Johnny essay his most skilful attempts 

 to approach Sunshine's near side, but with no better success. 

 The horse would not allow him to come nearer than just about 

 the reach of his heels, when, wheeling round, he threw them 

 out with a vengeance which showed the depth of his antipathy 

 to his intended rider. 



