350 SYSTEM OF KENNEL AND 



proved too good a jockey for them all. Pass him 

 they could not ; and the further they went^ the fur- 

 ther went the hounds before them. 



"Now, Coventry/^ cried George Tracy, as they rode 

 neck and neck together, " now is your time to ride 

 over some of these slow bow-wowing brutes, as you 

 called them the other day. The old squire is not 

 here to rate jo\xP 



'^Who would have thought it, George — not I, 

 certainly — that they could go such a trimming pace 

 over the turf? By gad, I can^t catch them/^ 



" They have nothing to carry, and your horse and 

 mine have, that makes some difference ; and then, 

 3^ou see, the fox is close before them/' 



^' I can't see him if you can." 



" Then cast your eye forward, and you will discern 

 something like a rook skimming along, straight 

 ahead of them." 



" If that's the fox, he's a precious little one, and I 

 wonder how he can go such a pace." 



"The distance makes him look small; but he is as 

 big and stout an old warrior as I have seen for many 

 a day, although the hounds are now getting nearer 

 and nearer to his brush at every stride ; and have 

 him they will in less than another mile." 



" Oh, me ! what a purl that chap has got to the 

 right," exclaimed Sam ; " that comes of riding over 

 old cartways covered with grass, which none but a 

 wide-awake fellow knows how to take. By Jove ! it 

 must have been a stunner, for, although up in the 

 saddle, he is riding away from the hounds." 



