122 THE LIFE OF A FOX 



" Well, Will, do you recollect the foresay about 

 there beinjr half a dozen foxes in the last drain ? " 



" I do, my lord ; and now the gentleman's fore- 

 says have all been fulfilled from beginning to end." 



During the time they were waiting for the 

 terrier at the last drain, and doubting whether he 

 could be found, a farmer was filling in the stones at 

 the entrance of the drain, and being asked what he 

 was about, he answered, — "Why, if the terrier 

 don't come, we mil starve the fox to death, which 

 is easy to do in this drain. He has had mony 

 fowls ; about forty I ken." 



"What's that?" said the Southron. "Pretty 

 sort of encouragement for a gentleman to spend so 

 much money in the country in keeping hounds. 

 Why, the Duke pays more money to the farmers in 

 one week than all the poultry in the hunt would 

 sell for in a twelvemonth ; to say nothing of all 

 that is spent in it by the gentlemen who hunt. If 

 there Avere no foxes there would be no hounds." 



" Vary true, vary true," was the reply ; " but 

 ]Mr. Williamson is raather too closefisted when he 

 pays a bittie o' the Duke's siller." 



The worst part of the story, as relates to our- 

 selves, remains to be told, namely, that when they 

 left a hard bargain was going on for the purchase of 



