72 HOUND AND HORN ; 



perhaps they believe it's true, but 'taint, or I should 

 have remembered it!' 



But let it not be supposed if he occasionally came 

 out with a strong expression — as huntsmen and many 

 others besides them occasionally may — that George 

 Carter was rough in his manner ; far from it, he was 

 a very well educated man, though possibly some might 

 say, " How could that be, when, according to his own 

 account, he had had very small school advantages, and 

 ran away from home and school at nine years of age ? " 

 Whatever may be the advantages of book learning, and 

 doubtless in many instances they are great, some people 

 forget that real education begins when school days are 

 over, and the boy first grows into a man and takes 

 his lesson in the great battle of life. It may be true 

 that a government inspector would have found fault 

 with some of the old huntsman's phraseology, and 

 detected many grammatical errors. This is mere red- 

 tapism. No one would have been an hour in company 

 with him without finding out that he was talking to 

 an educated man, and not a clown. His way of ex- 

 pressing himself — his freedom from slang phrases — and 

 his impressive manner, showed at once, not only that 

 he was a man of education, but of refined taste. 



He was very fond of quoting from various authors, 

 but the one in which he delighted most was Somer- 



