u SUNSHINE WINS ! 101 



moment, unless resigned to the approaching result of being 

 caught. 



"Sunshine is with them !" cried a voice. 



"What against Sunshine ?" hallooed a second. 



" I'll lay an even hundred that I name the winner," shouted 



a third. 



" Sunshine wins !" was proclaimed by a hundred tongues, not 

 one of which, however, produced the smallest perceptible effect 

 upon the stoicism of Puffy Doddles. He was " riding to 

 orders," and to orders only would he ride. 



A single horse only now remained in front. Inch 

 by inch Sunshine gained upon him, but it looked, as the two 

 raced together, that Puffy Doddles came too late at the finish. 

 With " hands down," and sitting as motionless as if carved 

 from stone, he seemed to be again throwing a race away ; but 

 when upon the post itself, excruciatingly close for a nervous 

 supporter of the " top weight," he was seen to call upon his 

 horse to make his effort. Upon the post itself no visible space 

 separated the two. Locked together they raced, and when 

 barely sufficient ground remained for three strides to be taken, 

 Puffy Doddles buried the rowels of his spurs deeply in Sun- 

 shine's flanks, and, as the "official report" declared, "amidst a 

 scene of the wildest excitement, won the finest race that it has 

 ever been our lot to witness." 



As Robert Top's best lad dismounted to " weigh in," he 

 was seen to examine the sides of his horse with anxious 

 solicitude, and upon perceiving a crimson stream trickling from 

 them, might have been observed to rub the end of his nose 

 vigorously with the back of his whip hand. 



A little more pressure upon his nervous system, and Puffy 

 Doddles would have been more demonstrative in his grief for 

 having given pain to his favourite. 



