t on the fire."

"That's right then. Let them have it as quick as you can."

"Then I med fetch it and warm it up here, sir?" said Harry.

"To be sure; the sooner the better."

Harry took off his glass, making a shy sort of duck with his
head, accompanied by "your health, sir," to each of his
entertainers, and then disappeared into the back kitchen,
returned with the mash, which he put on the fire, and went off to
the stable again.

"What do you think of him?" said Tom.

"I like to see a fellow let his braces down when he goes to
work," said East.

"It's not every fellow who would be strapping away at those
horses, instead of making himself at home in the back kitchen."

"No, it isn't," said East.

"Don't you like his looks now?"

"He's not a bad sort, your convict."

"I say, I wish you wouldn't call him names."

"Very good; your unfortunate friend, then. What are you going to
do with him?"

"That's just what I've been puzzling about all the way here. What
do you think?" And then they drew to the fire again, and began to
talk over Harry's prospects. In some ten minutes he returned to
the kitchen for the mash, and this time drew a complimentary
remark from the lieutenant.

Harry was passionately fond of animals, and especially of horses,
and they found it out quickly enough as they always do. The two
hacks were by this time almost fresh again, with dry coats, and
feet well washed and cleansed; and while working at them, Harry
had been thinking over all he had heard that evening, and what
with the work and what with his thoughts, found himself getting
more hopeful every minute. No one who had seen his face an hour
before on the heath would have believed it was the same man who
was now patting and fondling the two hacks as they disposed of
the mash he had prepared for them. He leant back against the
manger, rubbing the ears of Tom's hack--the one which had carried
double so well in their first flight--gently with his two hands,
while the delighted beast bent down its head, and pressed it
against him, and stretched its neck, expressing in all manner of
silent ways its equine astonishment and satisfaction. By the
light of the single dip, Harry's face grew shorter and shorter,
until at last, a quiet humorous look began to creep back into it.

As we have already taken the liberty of putting the thoughts of
his betters into words, we must now do so for him; and, if he had
expressed his thoughts in his own v