This, prima facie, may appear to be very severe upon Judkins; but it is in reality not so, seeing that he was no fool, and that no one ever supposed him to be anything like a fool. He was kept awake so long by the idea of its being imagined that he was a fool. But when he had sufficiently reflected upon the matter, that is, when he had proved himself to himself, beyond all dispute on the part of himself, to be no fool, he went to sleep, and slept until six in the morning.
Being, however, anxious to prove to cook, that he would have been a fool had he allowed himself to act on her suggestion, he no sooner rose than he went to the stable, which he found, to all appearance, externally, just as he had left it. The door was locked; the key was still in the secret place above the door, and the way in which it turned when applied to the lock, convinced him fully that the lock had not been forced. But the moment he entered, he saw at a single glance, that something was wrong. There stood the pony, and there stood Snorter; but Snorter was saddled, and not only saddled, but literally covered with steaming foam!
Judkins stood for a moment, looking at the animal with an expression of amazement the most intense, and having thus viewed him from head to tail, he asked himself the following questions:—First: Where could the horse, have been? Secondly: Who could have taken him out? Thirdly: What, under the circumstances, was he to do? The two first questions he couldn't at all answer; he knew only this: that the horse had been out, and that he who had taken him out was no stranger: he therefore passed them to be considered anon, conceiving that the question which demanded his immediate consideration was the third: What, under the circumstances, was he to do?
Should he go in and explain how matters stood in the stable? Would it be wise to do so? He thought not. When he had dwelt upon the triumphant position in which cook would be thereby placed, he could not think that the pursuit of such a course would be at all indicative of wisdom. Well then; should he set to work and clean the horse at once, and say nothing whatever about it? This question was the germ of deep thought. It was, however, perfectly clear, that Snorter in any case must be rubbed down; and, as Judkins felt that while rubbing him down he should have sufficient time to arrive at some decision, he pulled off his jacket, and went to work at once.
Now while he was thus intently engaged, and hissing away like an angry serpent, cook glided past the stable door. She had come out expressly with the view of breaking loose in the event of Snorter having been stolen: it was her immovably-fixed determination to open in that event her whole mind to Judkins, and, therefore, it is not irrational to suppose that, had matters stood as she expected they would stand, and as indeed she really wished them to stand, she would have walked into him warmly; but as she saw the horse in reality there, and therefore felt that she must have been mistaken, in so far as the identity of the animal was concerned, she deemed it prudent to hold her peace, and silently worked her way back.
During the performance of this extraordinary feat, Mary, while assisting her mistress to dress, explained minutely to her all that had
