FOX AND HOUND 



that bright green coat is the best farmer, as well 

 as the hardest rider for many a mile round ; one 

 who plays, as he works, with all his might, and 

 might have made a beau sabreur and colonel of 

 dragoons. So might that black coat, who now 

 brews good beer, and stands up for the poor at the 

 Board of Guardians, and rides, like the green coat, 

 as well as he works. That other black coat is a 

 county banker : but he knows more of the fox 

 than the fox knows of himself, and where the 

 hounds are there will he be this day. That red 

 coat has hunted kangaroo in Australia ; that one 

 has— but what matter to you who each man is? 

 Enough that each can tell me a good story, welcome 

 me cheerfully, and give me out here, in the wild 

 forest, the wholesome feeling of being at home 

 among friends. 



* And am I going with them ? 



• Certainly. He who falls in with hounds running 

 and follows them not as far as he can (business 

 permitting of course, in a business country) is 

 either more or less than man. So I who am 

 neither more nor less, but simply a man like my 

 neighbours, turn my horse's head to go. 



•There is music again, if you will listen, in the 

 soft tread of those hundred horse-hoofs upon the 

 spungy vegetable soil. They are trotting now in 

 ** common time." You may hear the whole Groats' 

 March (the finest trotting march in the world), 



40 



