FIFTY YEARS OF A SHOWMAN'S LIFE 



to bear with equanimity, and soon was " laughter 

 holding both its sides " all round. The Heir- 

 Apparent, with the courteous and ready tact which, 

 many a time and oft since then, had helped to 

 smooth over a difficulty, put an end to the old 

 man's perplexity by requesting him, as a personal 

 favour, to keep his hat on out of doors. Then 

 his Royal Highness praised the ale, and expressed 

 his thanks in a way that left Joseph in the seventh 

 heaven of delight, and, as an old country-side 

 expression has it, " as proud as a dog with two 

 tails." 



There is a sequel, and a very pretty one, to 

 this story, for shortly after the episode in question 

 Joseph received from his Royal visitor, as a 

 memento of the occasion, two drinking horns, 

 handsomely mounted in silver, accompanied by a 

 kind message. 



Not long afterwards I had the pleasure of 

 sampling the ale that the Prince so appreciated 

 out of one of these particular horns, and of hearing 

 from Joseph himself the story of his absent- 

 mindedness, so I can go bail for the accuracy of 

 what I have narrated. 



Harris not only knew every inch of the country 

 round about him, but appeared to us boys to have 

 a personal acquaintance with every fox in the 

 neighbourhood, for he would often predict with 

 remarkable accuracy the line Reynard would take 

 when hounds were after him. I remember, on 

 one particular occasion, when some of us had seen 

 the hounds throw off, he remarked that he knew 

 enough of the fox they were after to make a 

 pretty good guess as to what he would do, and 



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