OF INTEREST AND AMUSEMENT 105 



well, too, and I believe was considered worthy of 

 becoming a brood bitch. One never can tell what 

 a puppy will grow into. 



A pair of puppies that I had here a year or two 

 ago found a fox in some furze behind the house 

 I saw him break, and they came away pretty close 

 to him, but never caught a view. Reynard went at 

 first for all he was worth, and they hunted him 

 splendidly, throwing their tongues like good 'uns, but 

 taking an awful time to get over the fences. I followed 

 as best I could, and found them at fault not far from 

 a fox covert about two miles away. They were pretty 

 well blown, but not half so pumped as I was, and I 

 had no end of a job to get them home, for they always 

 wanted to get back to where they lost their fox. Not 

 a single day passed after that without the pair draw- 

 ing steadily through those furze bushes for that fox, 

 but I never heard of their finding again. 



We have been lucky in the immunity our puppies 

 have enjoyed from disease, and have had only one 

 accident, but there was terrible grief on that occasion. 

 The beautiful Stella was the constant attendant of 

 two small children who made a great pet of her. As 

 they had any amount of grass and fields to wander 

 over inside the place, they were forbidden to take 

 her out on the roads. But blackberries in a certain 

 lane one day proved too much for them, and Stella 

 followed across the high-road. It was fair day, and 

 she was driven over, the wheel of the trap breaking 

 her hip high up. She was but four and a half months 

 old at the time, and the case looked hopeless ; but 

 one should never despair of any fracture in the days 



