21 G SYSTEM OF KENNEL AND 



spot where Dick was posted ; but, in galloping 

 back, his horse put his fore-leg into a rabbit-stop, 

 and a heavy fall w^as the result, by which he was 

 so shaken that he could scarcely get up again. 

 Seeing he was more hurt than he liked to confess, 

 the master desired Woodcraft and Jem to go on 

 with tlie hounds, leaving Jack to take care of his 

 huntsman. Much time was lost by this unfortu- 

 nate accident, but Tom, declaring he should be all 

 right, and with him again, Dick obeyed orders by 

 recovering the lost ground at a hunting pace, 

 resolved now to keep the hounds' noses down ; 

 and thus he persevered, until they began running 

 pretty briskly into the Belvoir country. They 

 had flocks of sheep and other impediments thrown 

 in their way, yet he held them on through all, 

 without taking them quite off their noses, and the 

 few who now followed the hounds began to wonder 

 how a stranger to their country could do such 

 strange things. 



" Now, mind," said Dick to Jem, the first whip, 

 " we shall be in the Belvoir home- wood directly. 

 Take care you don't halloa a fresh fox ; ours has 

 had nearly enough of it/' 



Dick proved a true prophet ; the fox entered at 

 the east end of the covert, not half a mile before 

 the pack, and they raced him up the long drive at 

 such a rate, that he had no time to turn right or 

 left, and away he went down into the vale, where 

 they ran from scent to view, rolling him over in 

 the open, before he reached the village of Botsford, 

 Dick never having: been thrown out of the tree 



