254 The Hunting Field With Horse and Hound 



"Lord save us, — here we are!" cried the Captain, looking 

 out of the window, and there was a hustling for coats as the 

 train was already at a halt. The Captain stopped to give 

 directions to the stable boy where to bring our horses. There 

 was but one cab left waiting at the station, and that a han- 

 som into which a man had already entered. Nothing daunted, 

 up rushes the Captain to inquire if the stranger was going to 

 the meet and if we could ride. "Come in," said the man with- 

 out more ado and away we went. It seemed this particular 

 gentleman was a little overstocked with Irish malt. He wore 

 a dress suit and was just getting home from an "all night," 

 as he called it, with the boys. We drove smartly on until 

 the Captain looked out and said, "Where the devil are we 

 going?" "To my house," said our host, "to take lunch with 

 me." "But we do not want to go to your house, we want to go 

 to the meet." "Why didn't you mention it sooner?" said our 

 host, who, seated in the middle, began poking his umbrella 

 up in front as a signal for the driver to stop. "Now we are 

 in a fix," said the Captain. "We are going the WTDng way 

 altogether, man, we'll be late to the meet." 



"Drive us to the meet," said our host to the cabby. "I'll 

 see you safely there, gentlemen," said he. As the cab 

 straightened out in the opposite direction, our host began quilt- 

 ing the old nag on the broad sides with liis umbrella as if he 

 were beating a carpet. 



"Give yourselves rest to your minds, gentlemen, I'll stay 

 with you to the death." Whack! goes the umbrella, but after a 

 time our horse, who had been doing his best for some time, 

 failed to respond. Our host then proceeded to stab him with 

 the ferrule end of his umbrella. This touched a new spot and 

 we went away at renewed speed with roars of laughter. As 

 we went along in this noisy fashion all the curs turned in to yelp 

 and cheer our progress. This encouraged our host, and he 

 jabbed again, but, instead of answering to the thrust by going 



