THE LIFE OF A SPORTSMAN 



' Yes,' replied Havgrave, ' and I never wish to be nearer to it 

 than I now am.' 



' Nor I neither,' observed Frank Raby. 



' I have ' no great fancy for the place myself,' added the 

 Baronet, ' but I should like to see old Stevens and Jack Hall 

 once more.' 



' By the bye,' resumed Hargravc, ' did you hear of the good 

 bit of luck Jack Hall dropped into the other day ? ' 



On the Baronet replying in the negative, Hargrav^e thus 

 related the stor}'- : — 



' When Hobart left school, at Christmas, the Doctor and his 

 tutor, from a knowledge of the large possessions that awaited 

 him on his majority, of course expected a very handsome iiouclt ; 

 and it is not improbable that the amount had been duly com- 

 municated to, and approved of by, the latter. Whether the 

 Doctor was popular with Hobart is extremely problematical ; 

 but that a certain person, named Jack Hall, was higldy so, 

 there was no roon) to doubt. The money for the poitcA, then, 

 arrived in a letter to Hobart himself, the distribution of which 

 involved him in no small difficulty. The result, however, was 

 this : — On the one hand, the chief educational assistance he 

 had received from the Doctor consisted of manifold unmerciful 

 floggings, and without being much the better for them ; whereas, 

 on the other, through the affectionate assiduities of Jack Hall, 

 he had been rendered a match for any man on the Thames, 

 in the use of a casting-net, or the management of a boat or a 

 punt ; and could heel and handle a cock with all the dexterity 

 of a professor. In point of fact, it was a simple ease of flogging 

 versu.^ cock-fightino- net-casting, and boating-. Takino- into 

 consideration, then, the ' value received ' from either party, 

 and, after the most mature deliberation, Hobart decided that 

 the money ought to be divided in equal portions l)etween the 

 three — the Doctor, the private tutor, and the professor of arts 

 and sciences, which Jack Hall must be allowed to be. And 

 now for the finale. This upright division of the money would 

 never have been known to the family had they not chanced to 

 have been made ac({uainted with it through an unlooked-for 

 channel, when all was put straight between the parties. The 

 deficiency to the pedagogues was rectified, as it ought to hav(i 

 been ; but Jack retained his share, on the well-known principle 

 of his profession — that all was fish which came into his net. 



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