io6 The Chase 



would now be called upon to travel, but to which 

 his breeding would be quite unequal ; and his true 

 symmetry, his perfect fencing, his fine mouth, and 

 all his other points^ would prove of very little avail. 

 Nimrod [C, J. Jpperley). 



Mainstay's Summering ^^> •<o 



IT was June, and the scorching sun darted his 

 sultry rays upon the dried earth, rending it apart 

 in wide crevices, as if agape with thirst. Blossom 

 and branch drooped, and the scarcely-opened flowers 

 fell in faded leaves, like hopes of happiness. Birds 

 hid themselves in the thickest foliage, or with lan- 

 guid wing took their way through the hot, flickering 

 air in search of cooler shades. The shallow rivulet 

 no longer murmured along its pebbly bed, but here 

 and there thick, stagnant pools marked its course, 

 from which the swallow gathered material to build 

 her nest. Faint and wearied before his task was 

 done, the peasant stood resting from his toil, and 

 beneath wide-spreading trees panting sheep lay 

 stretched in dreamy idleness. Things of the air 

 and of the earth looked parched and feverish. 



Despite the prevailing heat, however. Mainstay 

 presented a remarkably refreshing appearance, as 

 he stood in a small convenient outlet adjoining a 

 capacious loose straw-strewn box, fenced in with 

 high palings, and over which a huge chestnut tree 

 threw a wide and sombre shade. Close to the 

 trunk of the tree, and for some yards around, near 

 which Mainstay might be often seen, with one ear 

 pricked, the other thrown back, sleepily switching 

 his flanks with the point of his fine and silky tail, 

 a quantity of clay had been thrown, and being 

 constantly kept moist and soft, material comfort 



