THE DOWNS. 75 



Sunshine gave an irritable switch of his tail, which seemed to 

 say, " Cut it short." 



" Never could bear to wait for your feed, old feller, could 

 ye 1 " continued Robert Top's best lad. " You know the time 

 o' day, and can tell it as well as an eight-day clock. A hoss 

 like you has a better head than many Christian folk, and a 

 precious deal better heart." 



CHAPTER XV. 



Within a week of the great race being numbered with the 

 past, one of the principal actors in that truly exciting scene 

 was taking a stroll up in the morning early, and almost as soon 

 as the lark began to think of shaking the dewdrops from his 

 wings. Upon the open Downs, stretching away in the distance 

 as far as the eye could reach, in hill and valley, ridge, slope, 

 and undulated ground, and in the immediate vicinity of Sun- 

 shine's training quarters, Puffy Doddles was enjoying a walk for 

 the combined purposes of keeping himself " light," and indulg- 

 ing in the hope that "early to bed and early to rise" might 

 render him " healthy, wealthy, and wise." 



" Good morning," was the salutation which fell upon his ear 

 from — in military language — his extreme rear. 



Robert Top's best lad wheeled — still to adopt the phraseology 

 of the army — upon his heel, and there stood face to face to him 

 a stranger. 



From force of habit, Puffy Doddles repeated the stranger's 

 common-place words, saying neither more nor less than " good 

 morning." 



" It's a very nice morning, sir, is it not ? " said the stranger, 

 still sticking to the then state and condition of the morning. 



Puffy Doddles thought there could be but one opinion con- 

 cerning the then state and condition of the morning, and 

 said so. 



