44 THE LIFE OF A FOXHOUND. 



Mab. And yet Tom Holt, although his face 

 was pale and thin, and his dark hazel eyes 

 always bore a serious look, enjoyed right 

 heartily his duties, and all thereunto pertain- 

 ing. He studied the attributes and affections 

 of the animals with which he had to deal, and 

 took little less delight in the cunning and 

 subtle tricks of the crafty fox than he did in 

 the sagacity of his darling hounds hunting 

 him. Like many enthusiasts, however, Tom 

 went very strange lengths upon occasions ; and 

 it was generally reported in a wide ring in 

 the country, that he asserted, when " much 

 wrought," at the Duck and Gridiron, upon a 

 memorable occasion, ** that a spider might 

 teach a weaver more in one hour, than he 

 could learn in a seven years' apprenticeship." 

 Be this as it may, there is no doubt whatever 

 that, upon Tom's recovering consciousness 

 from a stunning fall, causing the blood to 

 flow from his nose profusely, he remarked, 

 brushing a few of the sanguinary drops from 

 the tip of it, that, " he did not see why they 

 shouldn't be blue instead of red." This is an 

 ascertained and acknowledged fact, and, 

 without further detail of his oddities and 

 eccentricities, Tom Holt must be left, like the 



