Mr. Grim boy. I c 



siderable sum, and, to add to his discomfiture, a Bill was 

 passed soon after enabling the railway company to go 

 where it pleased, and accordingly before long it was to be 

 seen twisting and turning through his domain, like the 

 great sea-serpent, in spite of all his remonstrances and 

 occasional assaults and batteries on the company's servants. 

 Mr. Grimboy never misses a meet of Lord Daisyfield's 

 hounds by any chance. No weather stops him ; no 

 distance is too far for him, old as he is ; he is always 

 there at the finish, and his horses all seem to have the 

 knack of going where other people's can't. You will see 

 old Grimboy ride quietly up to a bullfinch that you can't 

 see through, and squeeze through it between two ash- 

 stems, where one would imagine there was not room for a 

 rabbit to pass. It's the " hands " as does it, as the horse- 

 dealer said. Young Vainhopes thinks he will do the 

 same ; and, lo and behold, he comes out the other side, 

 with his hat smashed, his nose barked, a piece of stick in 

 his eye, and a coat-lap nearly torn off, to say nothing of 

 his horse's legs being filled with thorns, whilst old Grim- 

 boy careers away across the next field, with neither a 

 scratch nor a tear, and as smart as if he had just turned 

 out of a bandbox. Vainhopes would give anything to 

 know ''how he does it." 



"Hark! is that the horn ? " ''Yes. Mr. Grimboy was 

 right." The once-famous Scrubs have been drawn blank, 

 and the huntsman is getting his hounds out of cover. 

 Mr. Grimboy, muttering invectives against all railways 

 and all fox-slaying owners of coverts, retires from his 

 splashy position, and joins the rest of the field. 



The order is given to go and draw Cranberry Wood, a 

 covert belonging to Mr. Grimboy himself. The old 



