hey go--Hurroo! they're off. Faix, there's Playful at her
tricks already--by dad she'll be over the ropes! steady, Bob--steady,
or she'll back on you--give it her, Gayner, my boy, give it her,
never spare her--laws! did you see that? Well if he gets her over
the course, he'd ride the very divil. Well done, Bob, now you've
got her--Hurroo, Tony, my boy, you're all right now:"--and the
mare, after a dozen preliminary plunges, joined the other horses.
"Faix, they're all over that--did you see that big brown horse? He's
Thunderer--he's a good horse intirely; did you see the lep he took
at the wall?"--and now they had come to a big drain; all the horses
being well together as far as this, excepting Crom-a-boo, who having
been forced through a breach made by some other of the horses in the
first wall, had baulked at a bank which came next, and never went any
further. Some one told poor Stark on the course that the horse didn't
run to-day nearly so well as his owner did last night; and it was
true enough.

"There goes Conqueror--he's over! Faith then, George is
leading.--Brown Hall against the field!"

"Never mind," said some knowing fellow, "he's a deal too fond of
leading--he's a deal oftener seen leading than winning."

"There's little Larry--my! how sweet the mare went over the water.
There's Brickbat in it;--no, he's out. He's an awkward beast. That's
Thunderer--Holy Virgin, what a leap! He goes at everything as if
there were twenty foot to cross, and a six foot wall in the middle."

"There's Playful at it again--he'll never get her round. Bad cess
to you, you vixen--what made me bet on you? There, she's over--no
she's not;--there's Diana--did you see Pat walk her through? Faith,
she'd crawl up a steeple, and down the other side. There's Playful
over--no, she's not;--right in the middle, by heavens!"

"And Bob under her--come away. My God, he'll be drowned!"

"Gracious glory! did you see that? He's up again;--d----n it but he
dived under her; well, I never saw the like of that; she's out."

"And look, look! Bob's in the seat--you'll win your money now. Well,
Bob Gayner, afther that you'll never live till you're drowned! Come
away to the double ditch; that's where they'll show what they're
made of--the mare'll be cooled now, and she'll run as easy as a
coach-horse."

And the two rode away to the big fence mentioned, which consisted
of a broad flat-topped bank between two wide dry ditches; while the
horses went th