194: A BUSINESS DAY AT CHEE-HA. 



during the long summer's absence. Yet, somehow 

 or other, Robin the huntsman was the servant chosen 

 to attend me, and my hunting pony was the horse 

 he was to mount ; and my gun and horn were 

 thrown into the gig, as if a necessary part of my 

 travelling equipment; and Eowser, Black and 

 Nimrod, with an instinctive perception that their 

 day of importance was come, crouched whimpering 

 at my feet, then trotted off in company as if they 

 had been regularly summoned; so that it was appa- 

 rent that if a hunt was not exactly the direct object 

 of my visit, it might readily become a collateral 

 one. 



The journey is made, and the night passed in 

 that venerable and hospitable mansion, to which 

 Loveleap, from a different quarter, but with pur- 

 poses similar to my own, had but just repaired. 

 The morning dawned, and the first beams of the 

 sun found us dressed, walking the piazza and rejoic- 

 ing in the promise of a glorious day. The air was 

 cold; the vapors that hovered about the river, con- 

 denced by the night's cold, and lifted by the rays of 

 the ascending sun, were looped up in the horizon 

 like a broad curtain, which left the roots and tops 

 of the trees distinctly visible, while the intermedi- 

 ate parts were still shrouded in its dense folds. 



" A charming day," said Loveleap, stretching his 



