74 MANAGEMENT OF HOUNDS. 



For a month Jem had it all his own way, but his high- 

 wrought expectations were not realized. Few foxes' 

 heads returned to the kennel door, so few that his fast 

 friends began to enquire a little more after the old 

 Squire's health. They had, however, occasionally a fair 

 day or two, and upon one occasion the thing they had 

 been expecting to have every day — a burst of twenty 

 minutes, as hard as they could go, with a kill in the open. 

 The whoops, I am told, were something extraordinary 

 upon the accomplishment of this feat, but it ended in a 

 row. One of Jem's fast friends, a sporting doctor, who 

 always rode fast and furious, happening to beat Jem in 

 pace, was up first, and jumping off his horse, dashed in 

 among the hounds for the brush, and began laying about 

 him with his whip. This roused Jem's ire, who was 

 second in the race, and perhaps on that account not in 

 the best of humours, and he retaliated upon the doctor's 

 shoulders. A fight would have taken place but for others 

 coming up and interfering. The doctor was so irate, that 

 he threatened to report Jem's conduct at head-quarters ; 

 but I heard nothing more of it, both being too much ex- 

 cited at the time, I believe, to know what they were 

 about. 



Towards the end of the month, calls from my sporting 

 friends became rather more numerous, and several sat 

 some time with me, seeming very anxious to know when 

 I should be well enough to take the field again. " Oh !" 

 I said, " in about another month ; but you don't want 

 me, you have Jem all to yourselves. By-the-bye," 1 

 said, " I have a strong idea that 1 shall find the hounds 

 wonderfully improved." "Oh!" they said, "Jem is all 

 very well, and a capital whipper-in, but, some how or 



