( 127 ) 



THE OLD HUNTSMAN'S STOKY. 



" May I come in, Tom?" 



" Come in ? Of course you can, and welcome you'll be. 

 I've had no one in all day, and it's not often I'm fixed tliat 

 way, so that I'm doubly pleased to see you." 



" I saw the front door open, so I thought I'd walk 

 straight in, Tom, and I knew where I should find you, 

 It's cold when the sun goes down." 



" Yes, sir, it is, so my granddaughter fetched me in 

 ten minutes ao-o." 



" Have you had many people in to see you this week ? ' 



" Yes, sir, a very fair number. Sir Charles and her 

 Ladyship came on Monday, Ben brought the hounds when 

 out exercising on Wednesday, and there's been two or three 

 gentlemen every day. Very well the hounds look under 

 my grandson, and he'll make a good huntsman some 

 day. He's the third Brown in succession to hunt the 

 Hazledean." 



" When did you come here, Tom ? " 



" In '45, sir. I'd been riding second horseman in Lincoln- 

 shire before that, when old Will Smith hunted the Brocklesby. 

 Rare men there were in those days — Tom Brooks, Field 

 Nicholson, Jack Skipworth, Colonel Tufnell, the Upplebys, 

 and the Nainbys, and the rest of them. I had a year 

 or two here as whipper-in, then went, among other places^ 

 to Sir Bichard as first whip, and came back here as 

 huntsman, after a spell with another pack, in '60. I gave 

 up in '82, my son Jim hunted them till he caught cold 



