iiiUmg; to f^ouutJ^. 143 



you can possibly hope to overtake the flying pack. 



''Are you hurt?" ''Yes." "Much?" "No." Then 

 don't bother and delay your kind and enquir- 

 ing friends ; let them get on, and do the same 

 yourself, if able, as soon as possible, and try as 

 quickly as you can to make up by your good eye 

 and knowledge of country the ground you have 

 necessarily lost. If, however, your fall is worse than 

 this — a serious one, in fact — say so, and sportsmen 

 will not be found wanting to assist you, gallop for 

 the doctor, or what not. 



Should you (and it is at times unavoidable) lose 

 your horse, it is worse than useless running after 

 him ; for, active as you may pride yourself on being, 

 you cannot overtake him ; whereas, if you walk 

 leisurely forward in the direction he has gone (which 

 will probably be that of the hounds), the chances 

 are that you will very shortly meet a labourer bring- 

 ing him back to you, and, having rewarded him, will 

 be able to re-mount and get forward with far less 

 delay than if you had hurried more, and renewed 

 3^our mutual partnership even a trifle earlier, when 

 you would have been considerably more out of puff 

 than your re-captured steed himself. 



But reward that countryman liberally, for remember 

 that one friend so gained to sport may at some future 

 day be the means of saving the life of some good 



