PUFFY DODDLES "COME TO GRIEF." Ill 



produced no more profitable result than the sifting of the top. 

 As in similar " robberies," the losers paid, the winners received ; 

 and but few additional items in the earthly record of births, 

 deaths, and marriages had been made, before the " nobbling " of 

 Sunshine for the Cambridgeshire gave place for a " fresh sen- 

 sation on the turf ; " profitable and pleasurable to some, pro- 

 fitless and painful to others. 



Robert Top's best lad had not one word to say on the subject, 

 beyond announcing the simple, incontestable fact, that "in the 

 morning early he found his horse lame in the near hind leg. 

 That's all he knew. That's all he had to say." In speaking so 

 little, perhaps, he thought the more ; but whatever might be 

 his reflections, he kept them a secret never to be revealed, and 

 was seen for days, and weeks, and months walking about alone, 

 with his hands buried to the elbows in the pockets of his drab 

 knee-breeches, staring at the ground, and evincing a strong 

 tendency in his general demeanour of having " come to grief." 



Sunshine's career on the turi was closed. Sanguine hopes, 

 however, prevailed of " rosy hue/' that Sunshine might become 

 the parent of Sunbeams, bright, and beautiful, and true as their 

 sire. With honours which few had won, the colt by Glitter, 

 dam Comet, by Falling Star, retired, and Newmarket herself 

 proclaimed, that " since a racehorse was first stripped, a better 

 never looked through a bridle." 



Time rolled on, and Puffy Doddles resumed, in increasing 

 years, the figure of his youth. Robert Top's best lad became 

 fat. An arch, or bow, was perceptible in that part of his body 

 which physic and exercise had kept concave, and a " double 

 chin " combined to show, by way of conclusive proof, that he 

 no longer rode " sweating gallops," trials, or races. With 

 Sunshine he, too, retired from the turf, notwithstanding tempt- 

 ing offers were made for him to continue to ride for the Great 

 Stable of the oSTorth. Puffy Doddles had but one wish, "to 

 look after Sunshine." This first desire of his heart was grati- 



