OUTDOORS 



strength, and of activity. Like a lithe and 

 sinewy Indian runner, it stretches out for its 

 race to the sea, and night and day, with un- 

 swerving patience, it holds to the appointed 

 course. Around it rise the timber-covered 

 ridges of the south-west, studded thick with 

 hickory, oak, butternut, elm, sycamore, ash, 

 and other trees. Above it, in the autumn 

 days, shines the sun from the bluest of semi- 

 tropic skies. 



Along these hills a hard-riding, hospitable 

 class of farmers live, and they ride to hounds 

 as their fathers did before them. To them 

 the life of a fox is sacred, except as caught 

 by the hounds and killed in honorable battle. 

 Their dogs are pedigreed and carefully bred, 

 and their lineage is proudly preserved both 

 in traditional and in book form. The horses 

 they use for the chase are not condemned to 

 the servile toil of the plough, but are only 

 taken for saddle uses, chief of which are the 

 fox-chases along the hills. In their homes is 

 still preserved that genuine, hearty hospital- 

 ity which includes friend or stranger, and is 

 the delight and wonder of those not to the 

 manner born a kindliness and simplicity of 

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