70 THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER. 



a hound, from laziness, or possibly from feeling that he 

 has been sufficiently pricked by thorns, briars, and garse, 

 creep out for a few seconds before him, than — " Angels 

 and ministers of grace defend us ! " — the young horse 

 pricks up his ears, stares intently at him, holds his 

 breath, and, with a heart beating so hard that it may 

 be not only heard but felt by the rider, he breaks out 

 into a perspiration, which, on the appearance of a few 

 more hounds, turns into foam as white as soap-suds. On 

 an old hound — by a single deep tone, instantaneously 

 certified by the sharp, shrill, resolute voice of the hunts- 

 man — announcing to creation that the one little animal 

 which so many bigger ones have been so good as to 

 visit, is "at home," the young horse paws the ground; 

 if restrained, evinces a slight disposition to rear; until, 

 by the time the whole pack — encouraged by the cheery 

 cry, " Have at Mm ! " — in full chorus have struck up 

 their band of music, he appears to have become almost 

 ungovernable, and is evidently outrageously anxious to 

 do — he knows not what; and accordingly, when a sud- 

 den shriek, scream, or, as the Irish term it, " screech," 

 rather than a holla, from the opposite side of the covert, 

 briefly announces, as by a telegram, the joyous little 

 word " Away ! " suiting his action to it, " away " the 

 young horse often bolts with his rider, just as likely 

 " away " from the hounds as with them. If he follows 



