FOX-HUNTING 143 



bility of the run of the season ; truly the 

 life with horse and hound is his ideal of 

 earthly bliss. For him, as for us all, time 

 brushes away the mysteries, and the scene 

 loses its fresh enchantment. Hope is the 

 richest treasure of warm - blooded youth, 

 gilding each day with glorious possibilities, 

 but the old enemy is gentler with him than 

 with the other. He may no longer spring 

 lightly on to the hunter with the wild eye 

 and winging quarters, feeling equal to send- 

 ing him along, no matter where, no matter 

 how far his eye kens each corner of the 

 once unknown land, he has tasted all the joys 

 and triumphs that the chase can give. The 

 red-letter days, he knows, are few and far 

 between, and when they come they but jog 

 his memory of a better. But if his heart 



