HORSES AND HOUNDS. 125 



and, as I expected, he had had a good day. Upon his appear- 

 ance in my room, I asked, " What sport ?" " Oh, sir," he said, 

 " we have had a capital run." " Well," I said, " and you have 

 brought his head home this time, I hope." " No, sir, I am 

 sorry to say I have not. We had a capital burst over the grass 

 up to the hills, and were running into him, as everybody 

 thought, in the open, when, after leaving the last hedge on 

 the edge of the downs, the hounds suddenly threw up, and 

 we could never hit upon him afterwards. I made a wide cast, 

 but could not recover the scent, and I cannot think what became 

 of him." "Well," I said, "I think I can. Whilst you were 

 making your wide cast into the next parish, the fox being per- 

 haps blown, and having laid himself down in the ditch, gave 

 you the slip, Master Jem ; that's all about it." " Well, sir," he 

 said, " 1 think you are right, after all. We were rather hasty, I 

 must confess, and some of the hard riding gentlemen would 

 have it that the fox was forward ; but I wont listen to them 

 another time." 



For a month Jem had it all his own way, but his high- 

 wrought expectations were not realized. Few foxes' heads 

 returned to the kennel door, so few that his fast friends began 

 to inquire a little more after the old squire's health. They had, 

 however, occasionally a fair day or two, and, upon one occasion, 

 the thing they had been expecting to have every day — a burst 

 of twenty minutes, as hard as they could go, with a kill in the 

 open. The whoops, I am told, were something extraordinary 

 upon the accomplishment of this feat, but it ended in a row. 

 One of Jem's fast friends, a sporting doctor, who always rode 

 fast and furious, happening to beat Jem in pace, was up first, 

 and jumping off his horse, dashed in among the hounds for the 

 brush, and began laying about him with his whip. This roused 

 Jem's ire, who was second in the race, and perhaps on that ac- 

 count not in the best of humours, and he retaliated upon the 

 doctor's shoulders. A fight would have taken place but for 

 others coming up and interfering. The doctor was so irate, that 

 he threatened to report Jem's conduct at head-quarters ; but I 

 heard nothing more of it, both being too much excited at the 

 time, I believe, to know what they were about. 



Towards the end of the month, calls from my sporting friends 

 became rather more numerous, and several sat some time with 

 me, seeming very anxious to know when I should be well 

 enough to take the field again. " Oh !" I said, "in about another 

 month ; but you don't want me, you have Jem all to yourselves. 

 By the bye," I said, "I have a strong idea that I shall find the 

 hounds wonderfully improved." " Oh 1" they said, " Jem is all 



