To-day, he was sorry that anything--even so great a thing as that--must come to disturb such placid happiness as this.
And yet, when the wondrous "Wednesday" came and he was actually on his way to Epsom Downs at last ...

Ah, well, Joy is elastic; Youth is a time of many dreams, and who blames a boy for being delighted that one of them is coming true at last?
Cleek did not, at all events.

Indeed, Cleek aided and abetted him in all his boisterous outbursts from first to last; and was quite as excited as he when the event of the meeting--the great race for the famous Derby Stakes--was put up at last.

Indeed, he was a bit wilder, if anything, than the boy himself when the flag fell and the whole field swept by in one thunderous rush, with Minnow in the lead and Black Riot far and away behind.

Nor did his excitement abate when, as the whole cavalcade swung onwards over the green turf with the yelling thousands waving and shouting about it, Sir Henry Wilding's mare began to lessen that lead, and foot by foot to creep up towards the head.
He shouted then--as wildly as Dollops himself, as wildly as any man present.