THE DARK HORSE
Full many a mare with coat of milkiest sheen,
Is dyed in dark unfathomed coal mines drab;
Full many a flyer's born to blush unseen,
And waste her swiftness on a hansom cab.
_Lines to order by a young English friend, who swears they
are original. But I regard them as an unconscious
plagiarism from Poet Young's "Eulogy of a Country
Cemetery." H. B. J._
It is a gain, a precious, let me gain! let me gain!
Oh, Potentate! Oh, Potentate!
The shower of thine secret shoe-dust
Oh, Potentate! Oh, Potentate!
_Dr. Ram Kinoo Dutt_ (_of Chittagong_).
We left Mr Bhosh in full pursuit of the runaway horse and milk-chariot
which he had so spiritedly purchased while still _en route_. After
running a mile or two, he was unspeakably rejoiced to find that the
equipage had automatically come to a standstill and was still in prime
condition--with the exception of the lacteal fluid, which had made its
escape from the pails.
Bindabun, however, was not disposed to weep for long over spilt milk,
and had the excessive magnanimity to restore the chariot and pails to
the dairy merchant, who was beside himself with gratitude.
Then, Mr Bhosh, with a joyful heart, having detached his purchase from
the shafts, conducted it in triumph to his domicile. It turned out to be
a mare, white as snow and of marvellous amiability; and, partly because
of her origin, and partly from her complexion, he christened her by the
appellation of _Milky Way_.
Although perforce a complete ignoramus in the art of educating a horse
to win any equine contest, Mr Bhosh's nude commonsense told him that the
first step was to fatten his rather too filamentous pupil with corn and
similar seeds, and after a prolonged course of beanfeasts he had the
gratification to behold his mare filling out as plump as a dumpling.
As he desired her to remain the dark horse as long as possible, he
concealed her in a small toolshed at the end of the garden, ministering
to her wants with his own hands, and conducting her for daily nocturnal
constitutionals several times round the central grass-patch.
For some time he refrained from mounting--"fain would he climb but that
he feared to fall," as Poet Bunyan once scratched with a diamond on
Queen Anne's window; but at length, reflecting that if nothing ventures
nothing is certain to win, he purchased a padded saddle with appendages,
and surmounted _Milky Way_, who, far from regarding him as an
interloper, appeared gratified by his arrival, and did her utmost to
make him feel thoroughly at home.
The next step was, of course, to obtain permission from the pundits who
rule the roast of the Jockey Club, that _Milky Way_ might be allowed to
compete in the approaching Derby.
Now this was a more delicately ticklish matter than might be supposed,
owing to the circumstance that the said pundits are such warm men, and
so well endowed with this world's riches that they are practically
non-corruptible.
Fortunately, Mr Bhosh, as a dabster in English composition, was a
pastmaster in drawing a petition, and, sitting down, he constructed the
following:--
TO THOSE MOST WORSHIPFUL BIGHEADS IN CONTROL OF JOCKEYS CLUB.
BENIGN PERSONAGES!
This Petition humbly sheweth:
(1.) That your Petitioner is a native Indian Cambridge B.A., a
Barrister-at-law, and a most loyal and devoted subject of Her
Majesty the QUEEN-EMPRESS.
(2.) That it is of excessive importance to him, for private
reasons, that he should win a Derby Race.
(3.) That such a famous victory would be eminently popular with all
classes of Indian natives, and inordinately increase their affection
for British rule.
(4.) That for some time past your Petitioner has been diligently
training a quadruped which he fondly hopes may gain a victory.
(5.) That said quadruped is a member of the fair sex.
(6.) That she is a female horse of very docile disposition, but,
being only recently extracted from shafts of dairy chariot, is a
total neophyte in Derby racing.
(7.) That your lordships may direct that she is to be kindly
permitted to try her luck in this world-famous competition.
(8.) That it would greatly encourage her to exhibit topmost speed if
she could be allowed to start running a few minutes previously to
older stagers.
(9.) That if this is unfortunately contrary to regulations, then the
Judge should receive secret instructions to look with a favourable
eye upon the said female horse (whose name is _Milky Way_) and award
her first prize, even if by any chance she may not prove quite so
fast a runner as more professional hacks:
And your Petitioner will ever pray on bended knees that so truly
magnificent an institution as the Epsom Derby Course may never be
suppressed on grounds of encouraging national vice of gambling and
so forth. Signed, &c.
The wording of the above proved Mr Bhosh's profound acquaintance with
the human heart, for it instantaneously attained the desired end.
The Honble Stewards returned a very kind answer, readily consenting to
receive _Milky Way_ as a candidate for Derby honours, but regretting
that it was _ultra vires_ to concede her a few minutes' start, and
intimating that she must start with a scratch in company with all the
other horses.
Bindabun was not in the least degree cast down or depressed by this
refusal of a start, since he had not entertained any sanguine hope that
it would be granted, and had only inserted it to make insurance doubly
sure, for he was every day more confident that _Milky Way_ was to win,
even though obliged to step off with the rank and file.