The referees again looked very wise, pursing up their mouths, as if the words that were to come from them were gold; and after comparing notes, one of them solemnly said—
“While it seems to the referees that it is scarcely their province to sit upon long noses, these not being matters of course, we think we are justified in holding that a gentleman who wishes to follow his own nose, and trust to his own tip, instead of getting a tip from anybody else, is entitled to do so.”
The backer at this got very excited, and shouted, “Nay, nay, but you surely won’t go so far——”
“Sir,” said the referee, sternly, “this is a foot-race, so you need not mount your high horse, neighing at us in that way. The referees have carefully considered the length of the gentleman’s nose, and, long as it is, their opinion goes that length. So let there be an end of it.”
The backer, seeing he could make nothing of it, marched off, muttering, “End of it, indeed! it’s no end of a nose that fellow’s got. There’s one comfort, it can’t be called a straight tip.”
SCENTENTIOUS.
All this wrangling had served Ranulf’s purpose, for it gave him time to con over his lesson. And a very funny lesson it was. He had observed all the smelly things on the sides of the course that the people in taking their refreshments had thrown on the grass inside the ropes; so his lesson went thus:—
| Right side, | Peppermint-drop. |
| Left side, | Ginger-beer bottle. |
| Right side, | Cigar-end. |
| Left side, | Skin of onion. |
| Right side, | Orange-peel. |
| Left side, | Nosegay. |
NASAL TACTICS.