HORSES AND HOUNDS. 181 



brook again nearly in the same place, one or two favourite 

 liounds only throwing their tongues. 



" Hang it," exclaimed my friend, who was still with me, 

 " this can never be right — they are running heel.'' " No, no," 

 I said, " you are thinking of your little currant-jelly dogs at 

 home ; our big-headed animals don't do things in that fashion." 

 Eight, my boys ! for over he went. He tried the quarry hole, 

 but it was shut ; " and now he is away again for another dodge, 

 and perhaps (looking slily at my friend) for another day." " Ay, 

 that he is, old fellow, you may depend upon it; you wont 

 handle him to-day, with all your kno\^dng looks and craft 

 besides." " Come on, then, and see, for he has an hour in him 

 still, and we shall make your old horse cry ' Bellows to mend !' 

 before he is booked ; for catch him I mean if he keeps above 

 ground." Passing through a small brake on the opposite side of 

 the brook, where the fox, I think, waited a minute or two, to 

 shake himself dry, or determine upon his next course of pro- 

 ceeding, the hounds got upon better terms, and began run- 

 ning for a mile or two rather sharply. We then came to 

 slow hunting again, over some ploughed lands, and they all 

 thought it was over, when we crossed a road, down which 

 the hounds seemed to mark the scent. We went on the road 

 for nearly half a mile, trying the hedge as we went, when 

 we met a farmer on horseback, who had been riding some 

 distance on it. Eager inquiries w^ere made, of course, by every 

 one if he had seen tlie fox. "No." "Now," said my 

 friend, " the game is up to a dead certainty, and I shall stop 

 no longer." "Good morning, then; and I will send you the 

 brush to-morrow." " Pshaw !" he exclaimed, and turned 

 away. 



My bristles were now up, and I determined to persevere. An 

 old favourite hound threw his tongue in the middle of the road 

 up which the farmer had been riding, upon which a stanch 

 friend to hounds quietly remarked, coming close up to me, " Is 

 it possible that can be right ?" " Yes," I said, " it is quite pos- 

 sible, and now we shall do again." Some of the field going down 

 the road, to save their nags (who had all by this nearly if not 

 quite enough, and some more than enough) viewed the fox 

 stealing away the other side of a plantation before the hounds 

 reached it; and such a row commenced at this unhoped-for 

 light breaking in upon us, that it baffles description, and it 

 nearly baffled the hounds as well. They were soon, however, 

 out of the hwiy hurly, although the fox had gained a consider- 

 able distance by it. Now came the tug of war, for he was as 

 game an old fox as ever wore brush. Down went the hounds' 



