THE HAUGHTY SHIRE HUNT. 69 



past him, but not one offered to stop, either to enquire whether 

 he was hurt or to lend him a helping hand. 



" It's the way of the beastly world," growled the Baronet, in 

 deeply disgusted tones ; " the way of the beastly, ill-natured, 

 selfish world ! As to that brute of a horse — ^well, all I hope is 

 that he will jolly well break his silly neck ! " with which pious 

 wish Sir Tommy proceeded to pick himself up and knock off 

 some of the clay clods adhering to various parts of his person. 



"Wonder where the devil I am? I don't know where 

 Halton is ; how should I ? I don't know any of the beastly 

 country, but, as far as I remember, there's no village to make 

 for anywhere near — nothing for it, in fact, but to trudge the 

 awful four miles home. As to anyone ever catching that devil 

 of a horse — well,' if he's caught this side of Christmas I shall 

 be surprised, that's all." 



And with these words Sir Tommy, heaving a deep sigh 

 at his unhappy fate, prepared for the dreary four-mile tramp 

 homewards. 



Before he had gone a mile, his boot had begun operations 

 in the way of removing the cuticle from his heel, and every 

 step he took made matters worse. He hopped in order to 

 relieve the suffering foot, thereby causing the other one to 

 begin the process of heel- rubbing, too. Then he managed to 

 catch his left toe against the spur of his right foot and trip 

 over it ; and after that it began to rain. Tommy's ' doll ' was 

 verily ' stuffed with sawdust, and the world was hollow ' on that 

 memorable day ! 



When he had done about half of the miserable journey, a 

 butcher's cart overtook him, and he stopped it. It might be 

 infra dig. for a scarlet-coated, top-booted Baronet to travel in 



