^^OUE OPENING DAY" 107 



I do not think much more than a minute has elapsed 

 when they hit it off. Why the fox should have made 

 the short turn he has done, I quite fail to guess ; but 

 the fact remains, and hounds are now running down- 

 wind. Headed he certainly was not, for there is not 

 as much as a curlew about to-day. There was some 

 talk of a change afterwards, but there was not any 

 evidence of this. 



Be this as it may, we must get along, for hounds, 

 though not running so fast before, are streaking along 

 usefully. One result of the change of route is that 

 we pick up most of the field, or they us, as we go 

 along. We pass again not half a mile from the meet, 

 and finally run to ground on a steep hillside, little, if 

 at all, more than a quarter of a mile from where we 

 originally found our fox. 



A member of the field volunteers to go to the 

 nearest farm in quest of digging tools, but I person- 

 ally do not feel any interest in subterranean opera- 

 tions ; and feeling also that so good a fifty minutes 

 is enough for a horse the first day of the season, I 

 turn my face homewards. 



I have not left the scene of action half a mile 

 behind me before clamorous "who -whoops" inform 

 me that one more fox at least will, to-day, be added 

 to the score made during cub-hunting. 



