230 By Stream and Sea. 



A pretty figure they must have cut ! The ladies were all 

 in the hall porch waiting for them, and the place was in a 

 blaze of light. Tracy had met them at the end of the 

 drive, where, in shamefacedness, they alighted from the 

 savoury chariot, and his loud laughter had forewarned the 

 ladies that there was no mischief to grieve over. 



The returned prodigals advanced, pretending to enjoy 

 the joke, Harvey with Paget's Pochard dangling in his right 

 hand, Thornbury, B.A., with the large pike trailing upon 

 the snow from his left hand. Their grinning attempt at 

 laughter must have been ghastly indeed. They were thickly 

 caked with frozen mud of a rich black colour, and the 

 smears on their faces presented a fine example of light and 

 shade. As they slunk off to the kitchen, the worthy spec- 

 tators of the wanderers' return laughed until the tears 

 streamed down their cheeks. 



That was right. The sportsmen had, in their pretended 

 enjoyment of their mishaps, advanced upon the party with 

 a gaily-said " Merry Christmas to you all," and, to do every- 

 body justice, although it was two o'clock in the morning, a 

 merrier beginning of Christmas was never witnessed. 



