224 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS. 



Here, while sleep favours digestion, he. makes himself 

 very comfortable, and dreams, no doubt, of his own 

 pleasures and successes in pursuit of prey. Presently, 

 about half-past eleven, he wakes with a start, leaps out 

 of bed, shakes his fur, and stands to listen, a perfect 

 picture, with one pad raised and his cunning head 

 aslant. Yes, he recognized it from the first. The 

 " Yooi, wind him, and rouse him ! " of old Matthew's 

 mellow tones, not unknown in a gin-and-water chorus 

 when occasion warrants the convivial brew, yet clear, 

 healthy, and resonant as the very roar of Challenger, 

 who has just proclaimed his consciousness of the drag, 

 some five hours old. 



'Tis an experienced rover, and does not hesitate for 

 an instant. Stealing down the ravine, he twists his 

 agile little body through a tangled growth of blackthorn 

 and brambles, crosses the stream dry-footed with a leap, 

 and, creeping through the fence that bounds his strong- 

 hold, peers into the meadow beyond. No smart and 

 busy whip has " clapped forward " to view and head 

 him. Matthew, indeed, brings out but one, and swears 

 he could do "better without him. So the rover puts his 

 sharp nose straight for the solitude he loves, and whisking 

 his brush defiantly, resolves to make his point. 



He has been gone five minutes when the clamour of 



