shop, and to whom I had made countless pairs of corduroy spatterdashes;
so we shook hands jocosely together, like old acquaintances, and the body
hodged and leuch as if he had found a fiddle, he was so glad to see me.

Benjie having fallen asleep, Luckie Barm of the Change, a douce woman,
put him to his bed, and promised to take care of him till we came back;
Saunders Tram insisting on us to go forward along with him to see the
race. I had no great scruple to do this, as I thought Benjie would
likely sleep for an hour, being wearied with the joogling of the cart,
and having supped a mutchkin bowlful of Luckie Barm's broo and bread.

By the time we had tramped on to the braehead, two or three had booked
for the race, and were busy pulling away the flowers that hung over about
their horses' lugs, to say little of the tapes and twine; and which made
them look, poor brutes, as if they were not very sure what was the matter
with them. Meanwhile, there was a terrible uproar between my lord and a
man from Edinburgh Grassmarket, leading a limping horse, covered with a
dirty sheet, with two holes for the beast's een looking out at.

But, for all this outward care, the poor thing seemed very like as if
wind was more plenty in the land than corn, being thin and
starved-looking, and as lame as Vulcan in the off hind-leg. So ye see
the managers of the box insisted on its not running; and the man said "it
had a right to run as well as any other horse;" and my lord said "it had
no such thing, as it was not in the box;" and the man said "he would take
out a protest;" and my lord said "he didna gie a bawbee for a protest;
and that he would not allow him to run on any account whatsoever;" but
the man was throng all the time they were argle-bargling taking the cover
off the beast's back, that was ready saddled, and as accoutred for
running as our regiment of volunteers was for fighting on field-days. So
he swore like a trooper, that, notwithstanding all their debarring, he
would run in spite of their teeth--both my lord's teeth, ye observe, and
that of the two key-keepers;--maybe, too, of the man that carried the
saddle, for he aye lent in a word at my lord's back, egging him on to
stand out for the laws to the last drop of his blood.

To cut a long tale short, the drum ruffed, and off set four of them, a
black one, and a white one, and a brown one, and the man's one, neck and
neck, as neat as you like. The race course was along th