PINCH-ME-NEAR FOREST 



could think of. In the excess of his energy 

 he overshot the mark, and kept right on, instead 

 of turning short up a track on the left. The one 

 he kept, from a uniformly rotten surface, now 

 became alternately soft and hard, the water 

 standing in the hollows like baths, and these, 

 Arterxerxes, as if suspicious of treachery, com- 

 menced leaping, but possibly finding the trouble 

 greater than he expected, he soon took to 

 blundering through them, squirting the muddy 

 water about in all directions. The forest still 

 continued the same forlorn, unprosperous-looking 

 place; where the wet stood, moss grey, aguish- 

 looking trees were dying by the middle, while 

 higher up, the oaks battled with the briars and 

 other smothering rubbish. Our master, how- 

 ever, was too busy to observe anything of the 

 sort all he knew was, that it was werry bad 

 riding. The sound of the horn on the left first 

 caused him to pause and ponder whether he was 

 on the track of Pigg. There were footmarks, but 

 not so fresh as his should be. Another unmis- 

 p 113 



