160 FOX-HOUND, FOREST, AND PRAIRIE. 



was Veerasawmy's well-known form and sable face, that for 

 fourteen years had never been missed from kennel or covert 

 side, whether during the summer at Ootacamund, or during the 

 cool weather at Madras ? For fourteen faithful years had he 

 tended each pack loving them as no nigger ever loved animals 

 before nursing them in sickness, and glorying in their doings. 

 Let rice be at famine price, he took none of it from the troughs ; 

 let the work be never so hard, it was performed as soon as sug- 

 gested ; and these are two attributes that we have since searched 

 for with patience, but searched for in vain. If stray hounds 

 were to be fetched home, Veerasawmy knew by instinct where 

 to find them. With him it was no "Very good, sar, I go 

 bring," and a prompt exit to the nearest bazaar for a drink 

 and a sleep ; but he would sound the " Co boy ! co bo'oy ! " 

 that he had acquired, and the old tin trumpet with which he 

 was entrusted, on every hillside, till sure enough he returned 

 with the wanderers. He was an honest native, a truthful 

 Madrassee, an anomaly in his land ; and his death was a loss-, 

 irreparable. Not a week before the date of which I write he 

 had been carried off by heart disease. That I may not have to- 

 dwell further upon the misfortunes of the year, I may here add 

 that during the ensuing three months the kennel cook was: 

 carried off by small pox, and fever either killed or laid low almost 

 every other member of the Hunt establishment. 



But to return to our morning's exercise. The inmates of the- 

 building had already begun to sniff liberty, and the noise within, 

 had become appalling, when at a signal the door was opened,, 

 and out they rushed, scrambling and tumbling over each 

 other those underneath yelling for their lives, and the puppies 

 giving tongue as freely as if on a hot scent in covert. The 

 cracking of whips in their faces hindered only the old stagers of 

 the mob, the remainder dashing forward, heads up and sterns 

 down, as delighted as schoolboys at their unexpected holiday. 

 A nanny goat startled at the uproar sprang away before them,, 

 and naturally enough the puppies seized the chance presented, 

 raised a hue and cry in her wake that must have roused all 



