himself.

CHAPTER IX.

THE ONLY "RACER" I EVER OWNED--SAM LINTON, THE DOG-FINDER.

I have been often asked whether I ever owned a racer. In point of
fact, I never did, although I went as near to that honour as any man
who never arrived at it--a racer, too, who afterwards carried its
owner's colours triumphantly past the winning-post.

The reader may have been shocked at the story I told of those poor
ill-brought-up children whose mother was murdered, from the natural
feeling that if pure innocence is not to be found in childhood, where
are we to seek it?

I will indicate the spot in three words--_on the Turf_.

True, you will find fraud, cunning, knavery, and robbery, but you will
find also the most unsophisticated innocence.

I went as a spectator, a lover of sport, and a lover of horses; and
took more delight in it than I ever could in any haunt of fashionable
idleness.

I amused myself by watching the proceedings of the betting-ring, where
there is a good deal more honesty than in many places dignified by the
name of "marts."

But if there was no innocence on the turf, rogues could not live; they
are not cannibals--not, at all events, while they can obtain tenderer
food. And are there not commercial circles also which could not exist
without their equally innocent supporters?

Experience may be a dear school, but its lessons are never forgotten.
A very little should go a long way, and the wisest make it go
farthest. If any one wants a picture of innocence on the turf, let me
give one of my own drawing, taken from nature.

All my life I have loved animals, especially horses and dogs; and all
field sports, especially hunting and racing. But I went on the turf
with as much simplicity as a girl possesses at her first ball, knowing
nothing about public form or the way to calculate odds, to hedge, or
do anything but wonder at the number of fools there were in the world.
I did not know "a thing or two," like the knowing ones who lose all
they possess. Who could believe that men go about philanthropically to
inform the innocent how to "put their money on," while they carefully
avoid putting on their own? Tipsters, in short, were no part of my
racing creed. I was not so ignorant as that. I believed in a good
horse quite as much as Lord Rosebery does, and much more than I
believed in a good rider. But there were even then honest jockeys, as
well as unimpeachable owners. All you can say is, honesty is hon