72 MR. SPONGE'S SPORTING TOUR. 



Sponge determined to keep the game alive, and getting Hercules 

 and Multum in Parvo together again, he added a showy piebald 

 hack, that Buckram had just got from some circus people, who had 

 not been able to train him to their work. 



The question now was, where to manoeuvre this imposing stud — 

 a problem that Mr. Sponge quickly solved. 



Among the many strangers who rushed into indiscriminate 

 friendship with our hero at Laverick Wells, was Mr. Jawleyford, of 



Jawleyford Court, in shire. Jawleyford was a great humbug. 



He was a fine, off-hand, open-hearted, cheery sort of fellow, who was 

 always delighted to see you, would start at the view, and stand 

 with open arms in the middle of the street, as though quite overjoyed 

 at the meeting. Though he never gave dinners, nor anything 

 where he was, he asked everybody, at least everybody who did give 

 them, to visit him at Jawleyford Court. If a man was fond of fish- 

 ing, he must come to Jawleyford Court, he must, indeed ; he would 

 take no refusal, he wouldn't leave him alone till he promised. He 

 would show him such fishing — no waters in the world to compare 

 with his. The Shannon and the Tweed were not to be spoken of 

 in the same day as his waters in the Swiftley. 



Shooting, the same way. " By Jove ! are you a shooter ? Well, 

 I'm delighted to hear it. Well, now, we shall be at home all 

 September, and up to the middle of October, and you must just 

 come to us at your own time, and I will give you some of the 

 finest partridge and pheasant shooting you ever saw in your 

 life ; Norfolk can show nothing to what I can. Now, my good 

 fellow say the word ; do say you'll come, and then it will be a 

 settled thing, and I shall look forward to it with such pleasure ! " 



He was equally magnanimous about hunting, though, like a 

 good many people who have " had their hunts," he pretended that 

 his day was over, though he was a most zealous promoter of the 

 sport. So he asked everybody who did hunt to come and see him ; 

 and what with his hearty, affable manner, and the unlimited nature 

 of his invitations, he generally passed for a deuced hospitable, 

 good sort of fellow, and came in for no end of dinners and other 

 entertainments for his wife and daughters, of which he had two — 

 daughters, we mean, not wives. His time was about up at Laverick 

 Wells when Mr. Sponge arrived there ; nevertheless, during the 

 few days that remained to them, Mr. Jawleyford contrived to scrape 

 a pretty intimate acquaintance with a gentleman whose wealth was 

 -eported to equal, if it did not exceed, that of Mr. Waffles himself. 

 The following was the closing scene between them : — 



"Mr. Sponge," said he, getting our hero by both hands in 

 Culeyford's Billiard Room, and shaking them as though he could 

 not bear the idea of separation ; "my dear Mr. Sponge," added 

 he, " I grieve to say we're going to-morrow ; I had hoped to have 



