MISS BADSWORTH, M.F.H. 125 



*' Well, her face, and I'll allow it's a bonnie one, will give 

 her away," Summers said with decision. 



" Perhaps she'll alter it." 



"Well, she's going in for it and no mistake; but I've 

 heard tell Miss Badsworth hankers after them things, not 

 but what I've always seen her dressed as a lady." Then 

 after a solemn pause : " There'll be no gettin' over her voice 

 when she cheers hounds ". 



" Voices vary a good bit. Summers. Some you can hear 

 for miles, and they ain't the loudest. Her ' Whoo ! whoop ! ' 

 is none so dusty ; it would make your heart jump." 



" Well, I dessay," with a sly look at Jack. ^' Perhaps 

 'twill pass with them that don't know, and there, if it don't 

 we can't help it." 



'' I'll bet a shilling you forget to call her ' sir,' Summers, 

 if she comes out as a man." 



" Well, I may have miscalled a hound in my time, and we 

 are all liable to mistakes, but I never rated and I never 

 cheered one by a wrong name, Mr. Morgan. I recollect my 

 father ratin' my brother George for something he'd done by 

 the name of Joe, and I a-bed with the measles at the time. 

 I heard it and somehow took it to heart, perhaps through the 

 measles ; leastways I've always been careful. Some hounds 

 is sensitive." 



In order to get the old man off the line, for more than 

 once his face had shown signs of a knowing smile. Jack 

 said : — 



" I always think a foxhound is the greatest fool in the 

 canine creation ; he wouldn't care much what name he was 

 called by." 



*' There you are wrong, Mr. Morgan, and I don't mind 

 telling you so. It ain't the hounds, it's their bringing up ; 

 they're like sojers, dependent on their officers. It ain't one 

 man in a thousand that would be any good if you took him 

 sudden and promiscuous out of a regiment; he's used to do 

 as he's told and depend on other folk. It's so with hounds, 

 it ain't natural to them to be stupid, it's the way they're 



