Fox Hunting in New England 63 



Just then came the deep bay of a hound and presently the 

 wood was full of it, but what an awful thing had happened. 

 The writer's chagrin was complete, he was nearly run over by 

 a fox and missed him. On come the hounds charging right past 

 him and when he finally came out of his trance, fox, hounds and 

 all were out of his sight. 



Nelson came running up. Would the writer have courage 

 to tell the truth when asked if he had seen the fox? But Nelson 

 saved liim the trouble, by saying, "Look sharp, he may be 

 back here in a few moments," and on he went to the crown of 

 the liill. This reminded the writer to load his gun again. He 

 had learned his first lesson in the New England style of fox 

 hunting; i. e. — when you are on a hunt you must be in the 

 game with all your wits from the very first. A fox doesn't wait 

 for hounds to chase him out of covert, certainly not, as the 

 writer well knew, from the riding-to-hound standpoint. But 

 there was the trouble, for in hunting a fox by riding to hounds 

 your movements all depend on the hounds, in shooting your 

 fox ahead of the hounds it is the fox you must think about re- 

 gardless of the hounds. The hounds were gone an hour when 

 we heard them coming back. By this time the cold perspira- 

 tion stage that the writer had found himself in, had subsided ; 

 he had done a lot of thinking and had given some real close at- 

 tention to hunting. He felt it would be a smart fox that would 

 play that trick on him a second time. 



Bang! went Uncle Abner's gun. It never spoke but once 

 and Mr. Fox never went the length of himself after. Hounds 

 came up, we ate some lunch, while Nelson took off the pelt, 

 mask and brush and rewarded the hounds for their toil. 



No allusion was made to the writer's worse than miss and 

 he let it rest until the time came to talk it all over in the evening, 

 by a cheery grate fire, a pan of apples and a pitcher of cider. 



Fortunately, perhaps, for the visitor's peace of mind, he 

 redeemed himself somewhat in the afternoon, shooting over 



