402 A FAITHFUL SERVANT. 



getically puffing away, nearly invisible in the dense 

 cloud, which had ascended, till, as a hive of bees, he 

 had fairly smoked them out. Words were useless, 

 excuses equally so: he " only waited for his missus's 

 bonnet." To send it home unfinished was annoying 

 to Mademoiselle, but the smoke was intolerable ; so of 

 course the bonnet was produced, and Old George gra- 

 tuitously gave one of his best Sunday grins by way of 

 a dormez-vous bien, Mademoiselles ! Poor George ! if 

 I were to direct any man how to be most faithful and 

 most honest, I would advise him to take thee as his 

 model : a grateful master offers this small tribute to 

 thy memory. 



I must confess I have made tolerably free hitherto 

 with Master Nickem, notwithstanding I had the law 

 of libel before my eyes; but like many men pro- 

 fessing heroic feelings, I am heroic when no danger 

 threatens ; for who is Nickem ? If any man or men 

 choose to stand up and defend him, why then, I say, 

 " Bucks, have at ye all." Honest men will not : they 

 will say, " Let the galled jade wince, our withers are 

 unwrung." Poor Nickem ! sometimes, like the never- 

 to-be-forgotten pack of Osbaldeston, with the immortal 

 (would that he was!) Squire at their side, we have 

 rattled thee along at the pace "that kills ;" when at 

 others, like the old Southern Bluemottles of Dorking 

 or Leatherhead notoriety, true to the scent, we have 

 followed thee through many of the doubles thou hast 

 made in any particular chase we have alluded to : but 

 where the shifts of all sorts of game are combined in 

 one, I know not the kind of hound adapted to the 

 sport ; so I will not promise a " kill :" all I profess to 

 do is, to give an occasional burst : so here goes to 

 "hit him off" again. 



