THE DAILY LIFE OF OTJU FAEM. 25 



another field, and through a wicket to the slopes. 

 Then didn't they prank and charge along this way and 

 that way, darting squib-like ; then, of a sudden, at full 

 gallop back, as a cock-pheasant preparing to roost 

 sprang up, with a loud cluck ; onward again ; then 

 pell-mell, half-affrighted by the rustling fallen leaves, 

 until, with noses bent down, and keenly searching, they 

 pegged into what I think has been an undoubted sup- 

 port to them against ailment, this sickly season — the 

 abundant Spanish chestnuts. And^ here they had an- 

 other fright. A porker with his tail cocked, who had 

 been rooting under a tree, by caracoling in a sort of 

 zig-zag fashion that was meant to be playful, and most 

 loudly snorting, gave us all (it came so suddenly) a 

 sort of turn, as the cook says, and which irritated me 

 so much that I gave chase to the ignoble cause of my 

 intimidation. I was sorely tempted to have given him 

 a pellet in his hams, such an unconscionable run up-hill 

 he gave me. He could not, assuredly, belong to my 

 fold ; but alas ! after all, he did, and to see the villain 

 make boldly at the wire-fence, and not top it, as the 

 deer do, but go through it with a twist and a swing, 

 and a squeak at the scrape it gave his deserving hide ! 

 " What security is there, after all, in wire," methought, 

 " when a beast like that makes game of our best work- 

 manship in such style ?" 



All hands were busy to-day, on our next neighbour's 

 land, drilling in the wheat, when an outcry was heard 

 in the distance. On looking up, there came along, at 

 an alarmed sling-trot, a poor doe, that had clearly 

 escaped from some one of the adjoining parks, and 

 whose innocent hours were now numbered. There was 

 a small crowd after her, and our farmer himself did all 



