106 OUR PUPPIES: ENDLESS SOURCE 



of puppyhood, and she was quite sound when we sent 

 her in the following March. That year Mr. Watson 

 had the best bitch entry I have ever seen at Bally- 

 darton, and third in order of merit good judges placed 

 Stella, Mr. John Watson remarking that many people 

 would have called her the pick of the lot. She 

 proved also a first-rate bitch in her work, but I have 

 mentioned her early career chiefly to show that we 

 never should destroy a puppy on account of a fractured 

 limb. Nature's cures are marvellous at that early 

 age, and even if a complicated fracture should cause 

 enlargement of a joint and prevent a well-bred hound 

 from running up with a fast pack of foxhounds, he 

 may prove useful in other fields of sport. 



From my window, as I write, I can see a pair of 

 lumbering foxhound puppies having a great game 

 of romps round and round the croquet ground, and 

 in and out of the shrubberies. They go head over 

 heels in turn almost every time they race across the 

 open, and I must say that I never had a pair of 

 bitches that I liked less. Yet I can see daily improve- 

 ment. Neither are straight yet. Rational is very 

 nearly so now ; Ransom was much the better at first, 

 and apparently the bolder ; but her sister has now 

 quite turned the tables. There is not a fence in the 

 country that Rational will not " have a go at " and 

 get over or through after me, but Ransom is often 

 left yelping behind. They are by Lord Fitzwilliam's 

 Proctor, from a good little bitch named Ransom, and 

 I feel sure will both turn out good working hounds, 

 little as 1 like them at present. They are an endless 

 source of interest and amusement, and their very 



