The Field-Master and the Field. 141 



with the followers who are of the fair sex. But I 

 think their solecisms are perhaps due to ignorance 

 only : although that ignorance is by no means 

 invincible. No one can be more appreciative of 

 the feminine keenness and quick eyesight that so 

 often come to the huntsman's aid when the male 

 members of the hunt have become " slack " from 

 one of several causes ; while on those blank days 

 that will come occasionally in the best of seasons 

 their presence, lively chatter, and piquant criticism 

 of men, things, and even one's own method of 

 hunting hounds, do much to atone for the absence 

 of the one thing necessary to enable one to show 

 sport — ''our friend the Otter." 



