18 HOUND AND HORN ; 



" How do you think the hounds will go on, old friend, 

 without the old Squire ? " 



" Well, sir, I beg y'r pardon, I don't see why they 



shouldn't do very well, if they've got money enough. 



He'd plenty o' that, and he would ride ; for, you see, 



he were a wonderful horseman, but his ways and mine 



didn't always agree. I liked to find a fox, have an hour 



and a-half with him, or more, and then kill him if I 



could, and, somehow or other I generally could do that ; 



but you see, sir, Mr. Smith used to say, ' What's the 



good of caddling about after a fox all day ? ' and if he 



hunted one for forty minutes and didn't catch him, why 



then he gave him up, and went and tried for another ; 



and as soon as he had tired one horse, he had another 



to get on, and so it didn't signify : but / always knew 



what Mr. Smith's hounds were. Why, then, I remember 



one day we met at Weyhill, and Mr. Smith came out as 



* a gentleman,' and I hunted the hounds. Well, sir, we 



found a fox at Ramridge, and knocked him about a bit 



to Appleshaw, and on to Chute Lodge, and 'twere a 



' mighty muddlin scent ; ' and at last the hounds could 



hardly hunt him at all; and just before we come to 



Chute Lodge there were a bit o' plough, and I see 



a hound called 'Nabob,' feathering up a furrow, and 



none o' the others could own it ; but I know'd he were 



right, so I just said quietly, *Heic, Nabob, heic ! 



> >> 



