248 MB. SPONGE'S SPOBTING TOUB. 



leathers, "I shall never be able to ride with stirrups in this 

 state." 



" Hang your stirrups ! " exclaimed Charley Slapp, shooting past 

 him, adding, " It was your saddle last time." 



Bragg's queer tootle of his horn, for he was full of strange 

 blows, now sounded at the low end of the cover ; and, having a 

 pet line of gaps and other conveniences that he knew how to turn 

 to on the minute, he soon shot so far ahead as to give him the 

 appearance (to the slow 'uns) of having flown. Brick and Swipes 

 quickly had all the hounds after him, and Stot, dropping his 

 elbows, made for the road, to ride the second horse gently on the 

 line. The field, as usual, divided into two parts, the soft riders 

 and the hard ones — the soft riders going by the fields, the hard 

 riders by the road. Messrs. Spraggon, Sponge, Slapp, Quilter, 

 Rasper, Crasher, Smasher, and some half-dozen more, bustled after 

 Bragg ; while the worthy master Mr. Puffington, Lumpleg, 

 Washball, Crane, Guano, Shirker, and very many others, came 

 pounding along the lane. There was a good scent, and the 

 hounds shot across the Fleecyhaughwater Meadows, over the hill, 

 to the village of Berrington Roothings, where, the fox having- 

 been chased by a cur, the hounds were brought to a check by some 

 very bad scenting-ground, on the common, a little to the left of 

 the village, at the end of a quarter of an hour or so. The road 

 having been handy, the hard riders were there almost as soon as 

 the soft ones ; and there being no impediments on the common, 

 they all pushed boldly on among the now stooping hounds. 



" Hold hard, gentlemen ! " exclaimed Mr. Bragg, rising in his 

 stirrups, and telegraphing with his right arm. " Hold hard ! — 

 p-ay do ! " added he, with little better success. " Dim, it, gen'le- 

 men, hold hard ! " added he, as they still pressed upon the pack. 

 " Have a little regard for a huntsman's raputation," continued he. 

 " Remember that it rises and falls with the sport he shows " — 

 exhortations that seemed to be pretty well lost upon the field, who 

 began comparing notes as to their respective achievements, 

 enlarging the leaps and magnifying the distance into double what 

 they had been. Puffington and some of the fat ones sat gasping 

 and mopping their brows. 



Seeing there was not much chance of the hounds hitting off 

 the scent by themselves, Mr. Bragg began telegraphing with his 

 arm to the whippers-in, much in the manner of the captain of a 

 Thames steamer to the lad at the engine, and forthwith they drove 

 the pack on for our swell huntsman to make his cast. As good 

 luck would have it, Bragg crossed the line of the fox before he 

 had got half through his circle, and away the hounds dashed, at a 

 pace and with a cry that looked very like killing. Mr. Bragg was 

 in ecstasies, and rode in a manner very contrary to his wont. All 



