72 A MEDLEY OF SPORT 



there's a fox or a hare in the question," answered Micky, 

 knocking the ashes out of his " dudeen," and turning his 

 tumbler upside down, as a hint to his host that it was 

 low tide with the stout. 



" An' it's meself an' ould Kitty'll show them the way 

 cross counthry, as ye'U see, Micky, if ye come to the 

 meet, for divil the fence or sthrame'll stop the one or the 

 t'other iv us," continued Denis, once more refilling his 

 guest's ever-empty tumbler. 



Promising to be a spectator of his friend's prowess in 

 the hunting-field, the old shoe -doctor started homewards. 



" Five miles, is it, ye say, Micky ! Begorra, ye're 

 not a man iv much invintion if ye couldn't do betther 

 nor that, an' ould Pat, the Squire's keeper, havin' a fox 

 to sell at your very dure," mused Denis, as the rotund 

 figure of the cobbler disappeared from his view round a 

 bend in the road. " Sure, an' there's no one knows 

 betther nor meself there hasn't been a fox in the httle 

 wood for the last three saisons at laste. But I'll see the 

 gamekeeper in purgatory before I hand him a sovereign 

 for the mangy ould vixen he caught in the Forty Acres last 

 harvest time." Suddenly, however, a happy thought 

 flashed through the fertile brain of 0' Grady. He would 

 get that same mangy vixen on approbation to show " a 

 gintleman that'd give any money to have a tame fox " ; 

 and a few minutes later he was wending his way towards 

 the keeper's cottage, manufacturing as he went a plausible 

 tale wherewith he might wheedle the coveted animal from 

 the custody of " Velveteens." 



