28 Seventy Years a Master. 



and was off again, shouting back to the farmer 

 that he was after a deer, and inviting him 

 to follow. And while they rode as hard as 

 their horses could carry, they found out that 

 they were both of them very good fellows, and 

 a firm friendship was started which lasted for 

 many years afterwards. Soon their quarry 

 was viewed, and these two alone enjoyed a 

 splendid run, and they stuck to it until at last 

 they took him. 



" Thistle Whipper " was always fond of a 

 horse deal, and he used to take me as a lad to 

 a great many horse fairs. He was admitted 

 to be one of the best judges of a horse in 

 this or the adjoining counties, and I must 

 admit that I have inherited his love of a 

 *'deal." He was one of the few men who 

 could hold his own with the horse-dealers, who 

 very rarely got the better of him. I flatter 

 myself that I, also, have known a good horse 

 when I have seen him, during my long hunting 

 career ; at any rate nobody could have had a 

 better instructor. More than eighty years ago 

 my father cut the following out of a magazine, 



