RIDING TO FOX-HOUNDS. 2OI 



you have got him home. Jump off his honest back, 

 to walk up and down the hills with him as they come. 

 He well deserves this courtesy at your hands. If you 

 ever go out shooting you cannot have forgotten the 

 relief it is to put down your gun for a minute or two. 

 And even from a selfish point of view, there is good 

 reason for this forbearance in the ease your own frame 

 experiences with the change of attitude and exercise. 

 If you can get him a mouthful of gruel, it will recruit 

 his exhausted vitality, as a basin of soup puts life into 

 a fainting man ; but do not tarry more than five or six 

 minutes for your own luncheon, while he is sucking it 

 in, and the more tired he seems, remember, the sooner 

 you ought to get him home. 



If he fails altogether, does not attempt to trot, and 

 wavers from side to side under your weight, put him 

 into the first available shelter, and make up your mind, 

 however mean the quarters, it is better for him to stay 

 there all night than in his exhausted condition to be 

 forced back to his own stable. With thorough 

 ventilation and plenty of coverings, old sacks, blankets, 

 whatever you can lay hands on, he will take no harm. 

 Indeed, if you can keep up his circulation there is no 

 better restorative than the pure cold air that in a cow- 

 shed, or out-house, finds free admission, to fill his lungs. 



