CHAPTER XII. 



** When early primroses appear, 

 And vales are decked with daffodils, 

 I hail the new reviving year, 

 And soothing hope my bosom fills. 

 The lambkin bleating on the plain, 

 The swallow seen with gladdened eye, 

 The welcome cuckoo's merry strain, 

 Proclaim the joyful summer nigh." 



It was the second week in April, and the 

 last day of the season, that we jogged slowly 

 along the road to the meet. The season had 

 been unusually forward, and the air was 

 fragrant with the early violets and primroses, 

 decking the roadside banks. There was a 

 haze rolling along the valleys, and the boughs 

 and branches of the trees, now unfolding their 

 luxuriant and freshest green, were glittering 

 with myriads of dew-drops, flashing in the 

 light of the young spring morn. 



Punctuality being the standing order with 



