1 8 Saddle and Sirloin, 



grudge. He would share her bed every night ; but 

 once when she had to get out and go downstairs to 

 fetch something, he took a surly fit, and would never 

 let her in again — at least, under the blankets — and that 

 long-suffering woman had to sleep in her shift on the 

 outside. Teddy and the cat were mostly in bed- 

 partnership with the boy ; but Billy stuck to the 

 girls, and old half-blind Stormer, who fights every- 

 thing in kennel, roamed about at will. After trying 

 in vain on a pouring night for a settlement in some 

 parish, he discovered a happy hermitage, in this brick- 

 and-mortar waste, at the bottom of an old chimney, 

 and, having laid the coals in order, entered into re- 

 sidence at once. My Mary, by Shamrock, is inde- 

 pendent of alterations, and resides entirely in the 

 gigs — at least, the one which has the apron on — and 

 makes sundry sallies during the night on to the rats, 

 which hold holiday in the yard. On one occasion, 

 she was found with five, which she must have carried 

 up, step by step, through the wheel spokes, and then 

 borne, Blondin-fashion, along the side-shaft to her 

 lair. As the Doctor says, she " lies with them in her 

 arms, as if they were puppies — the darling wee thing!" 

 She lives well among the patients in her daily 

 gig rides, but cream and meat don't make her idle. 

 Occasionally she enlivens these professional rounds 

 by taking the drains after a rabbit, and she has car- 

 ried one alive into the gig. Like her, the Doctor 

 does a good deal of sleeping in the gig, but to ensure 

 peaceful repose he must have two pair of reins, and 

 hold the one while his wife drives with the other. 

 Gouty old Malakhoff's white skin is in the best bed- 

 room, and you now tread over " old John Peel's" and 

 Fairplay's somewhere on the landing. Shamrock's is 

 in the big room, and gives you the notion, as you first 

 look and recall the little grey-and-tan warrior of 

 eighteen seasons, that a quarry stone has tumbled on 

 him, and flattened him out. His is indeed a precious 



