mr. sponge's sporting tour. 53 



presently in the street. He didn't exactly understand it, but having 

 full confidence in his horsemanship, and believing the one he was on 

 required nothing but riding, he was not afraid to take his chance. 



Not being the man to put his candle under a bushel, Mr. Sponge 

 took the principal streets on his way out of town. We are not sure 

 that he did not go rather out of his way to get them in, but that is 

 neither here nor there, seeing he was a stranger who didn't know the 

 way. What a sensation his appearance created as the gallant brown 

 stepped proudly and freely up Coronation Street, throwing his smart, 

 clean, well-put-on head up and down on the unrestrained freedom of 

 the snaffle. 



" Oh, d — n it, there he is ! " exclaimed Mr. Spareneck, jumping 

 up from the breakfast-table, and nearly sweeping the contents off by 

 catching the cloth with his spur. 



" Where ? " exclaimed half-a-dozen voices, amid a general rush to 

 the windows. 



" What a fright ! " exclaimed little Miss Martindale, whispering 

 into Miss Beauchamp's ear ; " I'm sure anybody may have him for 

 me," though she felt in her heart that he was far from bad looking. 



" I wonder how long he's taken to put on that choker," observed 

 Mr. Spareneck, eyeing him intently, not without an inward qualm 

 that he had set himself a more difficult task than he imagined, to 

 " cut him down," especially when he looked at the noble animal he 

 bestrode, and the masterly way he sat him. 



" What a pair of profligate boots," observed Captain Whitfield, as 

 our friend now passed his lodgings. 



" It would be the duty of a right-thinking man to ride over a 

 fellow in such a pair," observed his friend, Mr. Cox, who was break- 

 fasting with him. 



" rlide over a fellow in such a pair ! " exclaimed Whitfield. " No 

 well-bred horse would face such things, I should think." 



" He seems to think a good deal of himself ! " observed Mr. Cox, 

 as Sponge cast an admiring eye down his shining boot. 



" Shouldn't wonder," replied Whitfield ; " perhaps he'll have the 

 conceit taken out of him before night." 



" Well, I hope you'll be in time, old boy ! " exclaimed Mr. Waffles 

 to himself, as looking down from his bed-room window, he espied Mr. 

 Sponge passing up the street on his way to cover. Mr. Waffles was 

 just out of bed, and had yet to dress and breakfast. 



One man in scarlet sets all the rest on the fidget, and without 

 troubling to lay " that or that " together, they desert their breakfasts, 

 hurry to the stables, get out their horses, and rattle away, lest their 

 watches should be wrong, or some arrangement made that they are 

 ignorant of. The hounds, too, were on, as was seen, as well by their 

 footmarks, as by the bob, bob, bobbing, of sundry black caps above 

 the hedges, on the Borrowdon-road, as the huntsman and whips pro- 



