PRIVATE C OURS TNG 117 



the field, began to quarter the ground Hke a pointer, 

 and at length he trotted back to us. 



We (a not very sympathetic gamekeeper and 

 myself) were quite at a loss to understand the pro- 

 ceedings, but we reflected that the twelve hours of 

 howling in a strange kennel had probably demoralised 

 him, and we decided not to try him again until he had 

 become settled in his new quarters. At the end of a 

 week or so we put him in the slips with a sapling 

 barely a year old, and when the slip was made away 

 shot the sapling with a tremendous lead, while the 

 brindle ambled on for a while, and then began once 

 more to quarter the ground. 



I was now very angry, and went in hot haste to 

 Old Jack, who was still confined to his room. The 

 old boy did not seem surprised to see me, and listened 

 to my tale with a merry twinkle in his eye. At last 

 he spoke. ' You must not be hard on me. Master 

 Charles. I wanted the money badly, and I thought 

 you would know that I only used Spider lor driving 

 the fields at night. Thinks I to myself, what does 

 Master Charles want with the brindled dog? Surely 

 he must be going to drive the hares into a gate net. 

 Well, he'll soon find out what dog's been used for, and 

 then he'll come back to me.' 



And now I may as well describe one of the farmers' 



