296 SYSTEM OF KENNEL AND 



So it proved. An old lady in a scarlet cloak, 

 toddlinf]f up the pathway leading across the field, 

 had frightened poor pussy so much, that she turned 

 short, and made again for the road, down which she 

 ran some half mile, and then made good her point 

 for a little brake not a mile distant. The currant 

 jelly dogs had now to bring their noses to the grind- 

 stone, and to pick out the line by slow degrees down 

 the road, scent being ticklish, until they hit the 

 meuse through which their game had passed some 

 fifteen minutes before them. Then arose a Babel of 

 tongues on crossing an Eden of pasture land, and 

 everybody said, who knew nothing of the matter, 

 "Now we are in for a run." They were out of 

 their reckoning. 



Ten minutes or a quarter of an hour — we prefer 

 the former — allows a fox time for consideration ; and 

 he makes up his mind accordingly to steer for a 

 certain covert or head of earths some eight, ten, or 

 fifteen miles, short of which he never thinks of 

 loitering by the way, except to recruit his strength 

 by slackening speed. The timid squats as soon as 

 she reaches the first coppice, or perhaps, if an old 

 one, traverses it to elude her pursuers, round and 

 round ; and tlien emerging from its shelter, throws 

 herself into a hedgerow, patch of gorse or brushwood 

 beyond, where she sits patiently, expecting to have 

 outwitted them. Guider, however, unravels the 

 mystery by perseveringly following her tortuous 

 footsteps, and springing on to the bank, bustles her 

 out into the field below; and away go the merry pack 

 in full chorus back again to the fallows on which 



