374 Sporting Sketches 



the track must be followed through half a hundred 

 twists and doublings, which in all demand more than 

 a mile of trailing. It may be that the hare, missed 

 at the first chance, must be again trailed to wherever 

 it chooses to stop. If so, there is a fresh track and 

 a hare at the lost end of it ; and patience will bag 

 that hare. I am free to confess that I like the silent 

 prowling, the keen watching, the side glimpses of 

 other small life, and that smack of the long agony 

 of hope deferred, which are sure to be the portion of 

 the still-hunter. 



Hounding hare is quite another matter. It has 

 its share of action, its sweet bells jangled out of tune, 

 of dog-voices, its tense situations, and, upon good 

 days, its sufficiency of quick, accurate shooting. It 

 has another advantage, too ; our modern Diana may 

 share it, an she be so graciously disposed. For 

 instance : 



" Ed, you've just got to take me ! I'm smothered 

 I want to get outdoors I'm ready I'll drive 

 I'll do anything! and" here the voice buzzed 

 like a yellow-jacket "if you don't take me, you 

 shan't have my dog so there ! " 



" All right, my gentle guinea-hen. That tongue 

 of yours would be a grand thing on a cold trail 

 it's a cursed shame you didn't get four legs when 

 they were passed round I'd take you sure, then," 

 I retorted. 



"You're just the dearest old thing in all the " 

 she began, but I cut it short with 



" That'll do now ! get your hooks out of my 

 gray hairs and let me be. I've got my opinion of 

 young women who get dressed all ready before they 



