TRANSPLANTING OF EVERGREENS 253 



the subject. That is, Larry has done the talking, 

 punctuated by contemptuous "hubs" and sniffs from 

 Amos, tf.itil day before yesterday. On this day David 

 went on a hunting trip extending from five o'clock in 

 the afternoon until the next morning, during which his 

 voice, blending with two immature cries, told that he 

 was ranging miles of country in company with a pair 

 of thoroughbred fox-hound pups, owned by the post- 

 master, the training of which Amos Opie was super- 

 intending, and owing to an attack of rheumatism 

 had delegated to David, whose reliability for this 

 purpose could not be overestimated according to his 

 master's way of thinking. For a place in some ways 

 so near to civilization, the hills beyond the river woods 

 abound in fox holes, and David has conducted some 

 good runs on his own account, it seems ; but this time 

 alack ! alack ! he came limping slowly home, footsore 

 and bedraggled, followed by his pupils and bearing a 

 huge dead cat of the half-wild tribe that, born in a 

 barn and having no owner, takes to a prowling life 

 in the woods. 



I cannot quite appreciate the enormity of the of- 

 fence, but doubtless Dr. Russell and your husband 

 can, as they live in a fox-hunting country. It seems 

 that a rabbit would have been bad enough, something 



