262 



THE HUNTING FIELD 



then the other, went at the fences, as though they 

 would eat them. Milksop was no shirker, on the 

 contrary he would take anything that anybody else 

 would take, and wanted particularly to distinguish 

 himself. So Shabbyhounde and he went on from 

 fence to fence, rejoicing. 



As luck would have it, at the end of ten minutes 

 or so the fox took it into his head to turn short to 

 the right, but the Squire's hounds turning short also, 

 they were getting together on the line, when our friends 

 found themselves "right among them" before they 



knew where they were. It is a general rule that when 

 mischief is done, every person who is not in the place 

 with the master or fault finder, whoever he may be, 

 is wrong, and it required no rhetoric from the Squire 

 to proclaim " that any but a natural born fool might 

 be sure that the fox would turn where he did," but 

 when the Squire came up and saw it was his old 

 tormentor, Captain Shabbyhounde, who had ridden 

 them to check, he began reading the Riot Act, most 

 vehemently, exclaiming, as he held the hounds on 

 across the enclosure, something about d — d horse- 



