122 Seventy Tears a Master, 



you get the delightfully definite answer : ''In 

 that field " with a wide sweep of the arm 

 towards perhaps a field of hundred acres. 

 They rarely tell you how far down or how far 

 away, and probably when you try the place 

 which you think is meant, your quarry has 

 not gone there at all. A good ''holloa" is 

 a godsend to a huntsman, and after a good 

 run it very often kills your animal ; but a bad 

 one is always the hardest strain upon your 

 temper. If some of the people who have 

 given me bad " holloa's " could have heard 

 the " damson tart " I gave them, they might 

 not have quite taken it as complimentary. 

 On the other hand I was always open to 

 acknowledge a good turn of this kind, and 

 after I had killed, if the man was there who 

 had given me a real good "holloa ! " I used to 

 make a point of saying to him " Thank you, 

 old chap. It was your ' holloa ' that killed 

 her for me." 



All followers of the hounds will admit, 

 however, that the pleasures of the Chase far 

 out-weigh all the trials and vexations one 



