A North Carolina Fox Hunt by Moonlight 45 



hounds in leash came riding along hehind. It was such a 

 charming night, not a breath of air stirring! "Just the night 

 for a fox hunt," said the Colonel. "I like night hunting best, 

 it is still, and you can hear the hounds at a much greater 

 distance." 



The hounds were finally liberated in a small bit of timber, 

 and away they went, heads down, each one for himself as 

 if hunting alone and all giving tongue as soon as the couples 

 were removed. The lot of them would have been hung in 

 England for babbling, but tliis style of hunting gives no 

 offence in the South. 



The wTiter will not attempt to describe the chase. It was 

 his first experience after fox by moonlight, and in a strange 

 wood he felt like a cat in a strange garret. 



The account of what happened, we will leave to Jim, and 

 we copy as nearly as possible his description of the chase, in 

 reporting the events of the evening to his master when we 

 returned. 



Before we take up Jim's account, it will be quite necessary 

 for the reader to know a few things that were imparted to the 

 writer on the way home, after what Jim looked uj)on as the 

 most eventful run he ever experienced, to say nothing of the 

 part he played in it liimself, which surely would raise him to 

 the en\iable distinction, as his master said, of being "the best 

 d — nigger on the place." 



"Marster'll sure 'nuff be pow'ful vexed with hisself that 

 he dun see the glory of old Ginger this night." Thus began 

 Jim, when we had said good night to Col. Sacket, and were 

 headed for our plantation some ten miles away. This was 

 about one o'clock in the morning. The beautiful full moon 

 was just past the meridian. The hounds were in leash again. 



"Nice looking lot of hounds, those of Col. Sacket's," sug- 

 gested the writer, "but — " 



"Nice nothin'," interrupted Jim wdth great indignation, 



