A SHAEP SPORTSMAN. SO 



favourite for a big steeplechase which Fearstone 

 had just bought out of a fashionable training 

 stable. 



To the barely suppressed annoyance of the 

 Mermaid's owner we all pretended an anxiety to 

 prevent Wynnerly from making the bet ; but 

 Fearstone adroitly got him into a corner by him- 

 self before the evening was over, and "per- 

 suaded " him to lay the money. The joke of the 

 matter was that, as we all knew — with, of course, 

 the exception of our friend "the sharp" — 

 Wynnerly was the guide, philosopher, and friend 

 of the principal man in the stable in question. 

 The Mermaid had belonged to him, and had been 

 sold because she was a very uncertain mare, and 

 they had a much better at home. Wynnerly's 

 hesitation was ingeniously assumed, and next day 

 he won the race for his friend with the ease 

 which the trial had foreshadowed, the Mermaid 

 a bad third. 



But perhaps the best story of Fearstone was 

 an instance of his horse-dealing near home. In 

 the village a couple of miles from his house lived 

 a blacksmith who did a little dealing at times ; 

 and knowing that Fearstone was generally ready 

 to buy, he rode up to the Towers one day on a 

 useful sort of horse, when he knew his lordship 

 was there. Fearstone came out, stood in the 



