i64 THE HUNTING FIELD 



living he loved so well. Every attention that kindness 

 or surgical skill could suggest was offered ; but poor 

 Pigskin exhibited no symptoms of returning animation. 

 At last the still pause betokening the exhaustion of 

 all the remedies and the extinction of all hope ensued, 

 and the lately bustling attendants gradually subsided 

 into calm meditative spectators. Peter had not 

 moved since he was brought in. The medical man 

 took his leave with a solemn air, saying, he would 

 return within an hour, the doors connecting the 

 picture gallery with the shop were closed, and every- 

 thing hushed and stilled down to perfect quiet. There, 

 as Mr. Ackermann sat watching his unknown guest, 

 nature gradually recovered herself, and ere the lapse 

 of half an hour, a low, " thafs very good,'^ fell upon 

 his astonished ear, apparently from the dead man. 

 On looking, Pigskin's eyes were found fixed on the 

 pictures of the Quorn Hunt, hanging on a level 

 with his eye on the opposite wall — How long he had 

 been contemplating them remains unknown — but the 

 one that drew forth the ejaculation, was where " Snob " 

 opens the gate for the good little bay horse, instead 

 of leaping it. When the doctor returned, Pigskin 

 was in an easy chair examining the series. The point 

 of the story, however, is that Mr. Ackermann was so 

 delighted with the recovery, that he insisted upon 

 making Pigskin a present of the set. Nay he did 

 more, he stretched them for him also. Far better 

 than " stretching " poor Peter himself ! Long may 

 the old boy live to tell the story, and drink Mr. 

 Ackermann's health as the kindest of men and most 

 liberal of publishers. 



Peter enjoys life, for he is not a slave to its forms. 

 He rises with the sun, and goes to bed when he is 

 tired. He gets his dinner when he comes in from 

 hunting, and on other days he dines at two o'clock. 

 Peter never sends out glazed or embossed cards with 

 — " Mr. and Mrs. Pigskin request the honour of Mr. 



