200 MANAGEMENT OF HOUNDS. 



satisfied in my own mind, that the hounds were there. 

 " Oh, Sir," he said, " that's impossible ; they cannot be 

 there, I am certain." " Then," I said, " I am as certain 

 they are. Go directly ; get the keeper and another man 

 with him, and my orders are, that they shall not come 

 home again without the hounds. There they are, and I 

 will have them out, dead or alive. Not another word — 

 away." My friend, the owner of the mansion, humanely 

 interested himself in the fate of the hounds, and told my 

 men, " they might dig away anywhere, as long as they 

 did not pull the house down." The keeper, being a 

 young and powerful fellow, with others willing to help 

 on such an occasion, worked away for that, the ninth day 

 after they had been lost, and slept in the village near 

 that night. He resumed his search early the following 

 morning, and saw traces of the hounds having gone up 

 the drain. This gave him fresh courage, and, sinking a 

 deep hole, nearly at the head of the drain, there to his 

 delight, he found both the hounds, and alive ! Being a 

 sensible fellow, he put them directly before a fire, and 

 rubbed them well over, giving them some warm milk 

 and water to drink, but nothing to eat. In an hour after 

 he gave them some more milk and water, vv^ith a little 

 sopped bread in it. He then borrowed a light cart, and 

 brought them home in triumph. 



So much for perseverance, or obstinacy, as some may 

 call it; but, when once satisfied in my own judgment 

 upon any point, I was never diverted from it by the 

 opinions of others. The fable of the old man and his 

 ass, which I read when a boy, has always been fresh in 

 my memory. Listen attentively to good advice when 

 ofiered ; but every man ought to be the best judge whe- 



