WARWICK WOODLANDS. 8$ 



M You shall see, you shall see ; come get to horse, or it will 

 be late before we get our breakfast, and 1 assure you I don't 

 wish to lose either that, or my days's quail-shooting. This 

 hunt is merely for a change, and to get something of an appe* 

 tite for breakfast* Now, Tim, be sure that every thing is ready 

 by eight o'clock at the latest we shall be in by that time with. 

 a furious appetite." 



Thus saying he mounted, without more delay } his favorite, 

 the gray ; while I backed) nothing loth, the chestnut horse 5 

 and at the same time to my vast astonishment, from under the 

 long shed out rode the mighty Tom, bestriding a tall powerful 

 brown mare, showing a monstrous deal of blood combined with 

 no slight bone equipped with a cavalry bridle, and strange to 

 say, without the universal martingal ; he was rigged just as 

 usual, with the exception of a broad-brimmed hat in place of 

 his fur cap) and grasped in his right hand a heavy smooth-bored 

 rifle, while with the left he wheeled his mare, with a degree of 

 active skill, which I should certainly have looked for any where 

 rather than in so vast a mass of flesh as that which was exhibi* 

 ted by our worthy host. 



Two other sportsmen, grave> sober-looking farmers, whom 

 Harry greeted cheerily by name, and to whom in all due form 

 I was next introduced, well-mounted, and armed with long sin- 

 gle-barrelled guns, completed our party ; and away we went at 

 a rattling trot, the hounds following at Archer's heels, as stead 4 

 ily as though he hunted them three times a week. 



" Now arn't it a strange thing," said Tom, " arn't it a strange 

 thing, Mr Forester, that every critter under Heaven takes 

 somehow nat'rally to that are Archer the very hounds old 

 Whino there ! that I have had these eight years, and fed with 

 my own hands, and hunted steady every winter, quits me the 

 very moment he claps sight on him ; by the eternal, I believe 

 he is half dog himseitV 



" You hunted them indeed," interrupted Harry, " you old 

 rhinoceros, why hang your hide, you never so much as heard a 

 good view-holloa till I came up here you hunted them a 

 man talk of hunting, that carries a cannon about with him on 

 horseback ; but come, where are we to try first, on Rocky Hill, 

 or in the Spring Swamps ?' 5 



" Why now I reckon, Archer, we'd best stop down to Sam 

 Blain's by the blacksmith's he was telling t'other morning of 

 an eternal sight of them he'd seen down hereaway and we'll 



