A MORNING'S CUBBING 37 



sheltered sides, and surmounted by two bars of rotten 

 paling. Through it were patches where the trees 

 were thick and bushy but stunted, and here the 

 heather grew close and high, overhanging and cover- 

 ing the open drains that had been made to dry the 

 mossy soil, and providing dry snug lying in all 

 weathers. From one corner stretched a thick bed 

 of reeds and dwarf willows, running out into a 

 small moss, where water stood several feet deep 

 during most of the year. This was the starting- 

 point, which we approached with feelings not easily 

 described. 



Billy and Tom slipped forward to watch their 

 respective corners as arranged, with repeated orders 

 to hold the fox or foxes up in cover as long as they 

 could, on no account to holloa the first fox awa}'', 

 and not to cheer to an old fox on pain of a double 

 thonging. 



Assisted by Jack and two young farmers, on fat 

 sweating horses, who had turned up, we followed 

 on, keeping hounds together. When within two or 

 three hundred yards of cover, hounds broke away 

 on a drag, and opened before they got to the wood, 

 into which they hurled themselves. 



In less time than it took to get forward, and before 

 the young hounds had squeezed through the fence, 

 Billy was screaming on the other side as if to burst 

 his lungs, and hounds were crushing through the 

 undergrowth in full chorus and pouring out at the 

 far side. Billy made a faint attempt to ride across 

 them in response to my yells of " Stop them, for pity's 

 sake, stop them 1 " Then catching hold of his bridle 

 and kicking his long-legged grey mare in the ribs. 



