452 FOX-HOUND, FOREST, AND PRAIFJE. 



escape — had hurried on up stream in search of a bridge (which, 

 by the same token, they found only a field further on !) — and I, 

 like " the last rose of summer," was " left blooming- alone." One 

 young gentleman, to do him justice, came back, and had a flick 

 at the mare with his lash. But, finding this of no avail, he 

 gladly availed himself of the invitation to go on. A rustic 

 stood on the farther bank — but the mare of course had to be 

 got back whence she came. " Capital — so glad of your help ! 

 Get over quick, and here's half-a- crown." The rustic forthwith 

 ran up and down the bank like a terrier seeking for water-rats ; 

 and the mare meanwhile subsided like a dead log, as blown 

 horses in water always will. " Get over, you fool ! She's 

 drowning ! " — and with a one-legged hop I placed myself on 

 the shore whereon I meant to beach her. But Rusticus stayed 

 where he was ; and neither entreaty nor plain speaking would 

 make him venture the water. He merely scratched his head, 

 and shook it, murmuring " I'd be watchered (Anglice, wetted), 

 I ca'ant joomp that fur." From entreaty I went to objurgation ; 

 and, as the mare played dolphin in the deep water — hemmed 

 in, too, by bushes growing on either bank — I grew angry, and 

 sinned. In a state of fury almost excusable, I emptied my 

 vocabulary (no slender one, but enriched from travel in many 

 countries) at his cowardly head — till horrified and terror-struck 

 he slunk off and disappeared. Now came another phase of the 

 situation. The afternoon was fast closing in ; and all around 

 was solitude and silence, save for the chirping of the busy pack 

 as — not half a mile away — they hunted backwards and forwards 

 on a tired and dodging fox. Slipping one stirrup leather round 

 her neck, and lengthening my hold with the other, I hauled the 

 mare's languid head on to terra firma ; and then proceeded to 

 review the position. The watch told me it w 7 as now close upon 

 4 p.m. — the date being near the shortest of days — and it was 

 forty-five minutes since we had left Tite's Copse. Not a living 

 soul within sight ; the evening still and dark and warm ; good 

 day for a wetting, anyhow. Let me see, how much did she cost 

 me ? Halloa, there's a man cutting a hedge only three hundred 



