CHAPTER XXIII. 

 HUNTERS AND HUNTING. 



BY HARRY W. SMITH. 



A CLEAR, cool November morning after a day or two of 

 rain ; a master who knows how to be stern as well as to be 

 courteous ; a pack of hounds bubbling over with enthusiasm, 

 kept back here and there by the whips, over anxious to 

 prove not only that they can show individual work in cover, 

 but that they can pack when once the fox breaks, hang 

 when the scent is bad, and not over run when it is lost, ever 

 watchful to turn like the needle to the magnet, when the 

 honest hound gives tongue and says he has found the trail ; 

 a well-bred hunter dropping his chin, yet snatching at the 

 bit now and then, perfectly controllable, but longing for that 

 first scurry when the master cries "gone away," all these 

 go to make up a combination that gentlemen of high and 

 low degree in England have said for years it is impossible 

 to beat. 



How little it takes to ruin the picture, and surely that 

 which interests you most, and which you can make right or 

 wrong, is the horse, which you choose as one of a number 

 to carry you for the season. 



There are many who believe that it is wise to wait until 

 August to pick up a mount to carry them in the fall, but 

 the wise one will tell you as Hames, the Job Master of 

 Leicester, said, " A good hunter has the hall-mark of sterling 

 on him and is good value at any time." 



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