ll give you fi' pun to buy
yourself some manners with, fi' pun for your missus to get her a better
'usband, and fi' pun for that bald-faced, ewe-knecked, calf-kneed son of
a laughin' jack-ass who calls you dad.' That's all that happened' Boy.
That's not bettin', is it? That's fair give-and-take. Quite a different
thing entirely. Ask the clergee."

They pulled up in the road.

Mrs. Woodburn came slowly down the steps of the old manor-house to meet
them.

She was a tall woman, gray, rather gaunt, and perhaps twenty years
younger than her husband. She wore a plain black dress, and there was
about her a wonderful atmosphere of peace and dignity.

Nobody but Mat would have dreamed of calling such a woman Mar, and any
other woman of the type but Patience Longstaffe would have resented the
name.

"I'm glad you won, dad," she said in a voice deep as her daughter's, but
harsher, as though from wear. "And I hope you won fair."

The old man, who had alighted, was passing the reins through the rings
of the saddle.

"There she goes!" he croaked in his protesting voice. "Might just as
well be on the crook--straight, I might, for all the credit I gets."

Mrs. Woodburn kissed him and the girl, and ran a practised eye and hand
down Goosey Gander's fore-legs.

His wife might be a Puritan, but Mat was the first to admit that there
was little about a horse he could teach her.

"He got round all right, then, Brand?" she said.

"Oh, yes, 'm," chirruped the little jockey. "It was light goin', so his
pipe didn't trouble him; and he fenced like he was in Paridise. I lay
off a bit till they was all bust, then I come right away through 'em and
spread-eagled the lot."

The woman's hand, strong yet tender, passed down the old horse's flank.

"I see you waled him," she said.

"Well, 'm, just a couple of taps like--to settle it," deprecated the
other. "Three fences from home I see I'd got the measure of 'em, and
come away from the ruck with a rattle. Then I easied him home."

"You'd no call to take up your whip, Brand," grumbled the old man. "He'd
ha' won without that, and you'd a plenty in hand."

"_I_ told him to come through and finish it if he got a chance,"
interposed Boy from the back.

The old man turned away with a grunt.

"Oh, _you_ told him, did you? Course my instructions goes for nothin'
if _you_ told him. There's _two_ masters in my stable, Mr. Silver, as
you see--and neither of 'em's me."

"Mother!" called the g