182 THE HUNTING-FIELD. 



here ; in it she goes/^ said I, viewing maclam^ who 

 found that she " who hesitates is lost/^ 



" Will the Huntsman take it ? '' said my friend. 



" As sure as 3^ou take your dinner/^ said I. 



" And we too, I suppose ? '' said my friend, " as 

 in honour bound /^ 



" Throw honour to the dogs," said I, '' in hare- 

 hunting. At sixteen I should have done so as a 

 bit of show-off, but add thirty to sixteen we think 

 differently. ' Charge, Chester, charge ! ' if you 

 like it ; but I have had too many sonsers to risk 

 one for nothing, for back they will come from 

 Beacon Hill, as sure as a hill it is. There goes 

 Mullins," said I, " all right ; he is paid to keep 

 close to his hounds, and look how he rides at it, 

 his horse going just as he pleases ; but he has been 

 in it too often to get in again ; over he is. Now 

 look at Sam, his whip ; see how artistically he col- 

 lects the little grey, sends him spinning at it, and, 

 as he lands, the bank seems to ' spring elastic from 

 his airy tread.^ " 



Swash goes the water, in goes a horse, and 

 under goes a man ; it was the young farmer, who, 

 on a big-headed, coarse bred, four-year-old brute^ 

 rode for a show-off at the water. The nag 

 plunged up, and young Clodpole plunged half up 

 and half down in the water. Fools and their 

 horses are soon parted, as well as fools and their 

 money, thought I. " Wade to your horse," said 

 I, laughing; "you can^t be wetter." 



