A HOUND HAVER 113 



But a few couple hunting and running with them 

 sharpens up the dog hounds, I think, and perhaps the 

 spirit of emulation is roused more by their presence. 

 Of course, one has to keep a few more to take the 

 place of those that are laid up in spring, and in the 

 closing weeks we often have an all-dog pack of 

 fourteen couple." 



" I see my little friend, Rosebud ; she is surely out 

 of condition ? " 



*' Well, you see, she was left behind at the hill farm 

 to have her whelps ; then she was brought back to 

 kennels on a cart in a large crate, with her five 

 puppies six weeks old. They were soon afterwards 

 weaned, and a week or so later Rosebud was taken 

 out for exercise with the hunting pack, and shut up 

 at the place of meet to be let out in the afternoon 

 to find her way back to kennel. On getting home 

 later I found a wire from Peter Amos saying Rose- 

 bud had come on there — to the hill farm — about six 

 o'clock P.M. — a distance of nineteen and a half miles 

 on the map from where she had been let out." 



" Poor old lady," said Bill ; " I suppose she was 

 looking for her whelps, and expected to find them 

 there. S'pose she's good in her work like her 

 mother, eh ? " 



'* Yes ; but not quite so good. She inherits most of 

 Rosamund's good qualities, and she and her brother 

 Rambler both inherit many of their mother's little 

 tricks and habits. They both on the roads like to 

 be a sort of vanguard about twenty-five yards in 

 advance and on the off-side, and to jump into 

 every water-trough they come to, as Rosamund 

 did. As they are rather handsome, and have a 



H 



