66 A MEDLEY OF SPORT 



Just before the bank of the stream was reached a hare 

 sprang from her form in a patch of rank grass, and away 

 across the veldt she sped with the coupled, yapping curs 

 scrapping and falling over one another like so many boys 

 in a sack race, in their anxiety to get on terms with 

 Mistress Lepus cajpensis^ who, with one lug laid down 

 and the other pricked, quietly loped over the arid plain 

 as though she rather enjoyed the fun. Suddenly the air 

 was rent with, " 'Ware hare, ye varmints ; 'ware riot, 

 dang your blood ! Ye ought to know better, damme, 

 after all the larning ye had in the old country," etc. 



The staid old couple of foxhounds, suddenly seized 

 with the rioting fever of the canine rabble, had — probably 

 for the first time in their fives since puppyhood — broken 

 away from the astonished and outraged huntsman, and 

 across the veldt they raced in the wake of the hare, their 

 deep, bell-like voices almost drowning the yapping of the 

 struggling rabble of cur dogs. 



Still rating and cussing, Tom jumped on to the pony 

 of one of the field, who, owing to a great breadth of beam, 

 had been granted permission to ride to " hounds," and 

 off he galloped in pm'suit of Amazon and Guardsman, as 

 though his Satanic Majesty were behind him, while the rest 

 of the field — including M., first whip, and myself — laid into 

 the pack with hearty goodwill. At length we had them 

 in hand again, and five minutes later the banks of the 

 river were being drawn : one half, led by the Airedale, 

 working the right and the other half the left hand side. 

 For perhaps forty minutes nothing wearing fur or hair 



