REDDY ARMSTRONG'S REFORMATION
ing crowd, and the excited women, and the jockeys warming up the runners, and give his opinion to each in a few earnest, sober words. If any of them dared to ask why, he blew smoke in their faces and looked offended.
One day a certain well-known official, when he heard that he was a son of the Armstrongs of the "Sunnybank breed farm," sent a messenger and brought Reddy to his box.
"Ah, you're a son of Colonel Armstrong, I believe. He and I are old friends, you know," he said, with a smile that was intended to win, and then tried to draw young Armstrong out as to his father's intentions in regard to Gascon, the well-known two-year-old. But as the boy would not draw, he finally asked: "Well, now, do you think he will enter him on the 16th?" At which Reddy, because he thought it was nobody's business, turned his blue eyes timidly toward the beady black ones of the well-known official and made answer: "Oh, no, sir," and this was not exactly true, as could
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