182 HOW I WON MY HANDICAP 



upon the hedge we had agreed should be the 

 winniug-post. My father had been coachman to a 

 sporting gent who kept race-horses, and the old man 

 used to talk for everlasting about the " Chifney 

 rush." When first Sikey and I ran I tried to beat 

 him, so he made me give a start. Then I thought 

 of the 'cute old jockey, and I used to try and get 

 up and win in the last yard or so. 



One day Locker, who had formerly kept a run- 

 ning ground at Staleybridge, met me, and asked if 

 I'd go out with him next Saturday and have a spin. 

 I told him I " didn't mind ; " so we went up the 

 turnpike till a straight level bit was found, and he 

 stepped 100 yards, leaving me at the start, saying, 

 " Come away as hard as thou can, whenever thou 

 art ready." He had his hands in his topcoat pocket 

 all the while, and when I finished, we walked on a 

 bit, neither speaking for a quarter of a mile further, 

 when he looked at his watch and said it was 

 " getting dinner-time." Soon after he looked again, 

 and then " took stock o' me from head to foot," and 

 as we passed the ground I had run over, he asked, 

 " Canst run another hundred ? " I told him I could ; 

 but tliis time he pulled off his own coat, and said, 

 " We'll go together." He was quickest off, but I 

 could have passed him any time, just as I used to 

 pass Sikey. When we got nearly to the finish I 



