74 A MEDLEY OF SPORT 



the while what manner of fencing could have made such 

 a tatterdemalion of the old fellow. 



" An' if I was as sartin iv a dozen iv stout as I am 

 iv findin' a fox for the hounds this mornin', it's the 

 happiest man in the parish I'd be," answered 0' Grady, 

 puffing away vigorously at his little black " dudeen." 



" All right, Denis," laughingly returned the Squire, 

 as his cousin and himself cantered off, " there shall be a 

 dozen of stout waiting for you at the Hall this evening, 

 if we find in the spinney." 



" Sure, an' that stout's as safe as if Molly an' meself 

 had it in the ould porther-case undher the bed," mused 

 Denis, as he broke into a little jig in the middle of the 

 muddy highway, and then, pushing his way through a 

 convenient gap in the hedgerow, made a bee-line across 

 the meadow which lay between the road and his thatched 

 cottage. 



It was a glorious hunting morning, and some three- 

 score men and women attended the meet of the Ballyhilly 

 Foxhounds at the Cross-roads, amongst whom figured 

 conspicuously Denis 0' Grady, attired in an old green 

 hunting coat, a pair of discarded breeches and leggings, 

 formerly the property of the local medico's coachman, a 

 pair of wooden clogs, blue bird's-eye stock, and last, but 

 not least, a fifty-year-old white beaver hat, which had 

 gained a local notoriety from his having worn it in a 

 certain Quixotic steeplechase against a horsedealer 

 residing in the Ballyhilly district. He was mounted on 

 old Kitty, the skittish, fiddle-headed, broken-kneed, 



