8 Cross Country with Horse and Hound 



to recall it! How youth comes back in his gestures, his 

 voice, his face, his whole frame, crippled and infirm it 

 may be, but made to play again as he tells the oft-repeated 

 story to his grandchildren of how he finished and won the 

 great hunter point-to-point steeplechase when he was a 

 boy, seventy years ago, by a neck ! He will tell you with 

 minutest detail of the great fishing excursions to Canada, 

 the shooting trip to the Adirondacks, his horses, his dogs, 

 his yacht, the run of the hounds. These experiences he 

 retains with ever-increasing clearness until the golden bowl 

 is finally broken. You may go still further back to college 

 days, and note what it is that delights him most to recall 

 the fact that he won a scholarship or graduated with hon- 

 ours, or the race of his college crew in which he took part. 

 If he is a very old man you may go still further back to 

 the games of his school-days. Ask him how the boys in 

 his day played " two all cat," " pom-pom-pull-away," 

 "yard the sheep," "I spy," or "fox and geese," and you 

 will have a most vivid picture of every move in the game. 

 Speak of music. Is he fond of the opera ? Oh, yes ! but 

 the sweetest music, the melody that still fills his heart, is 

 the music of the hound in full cry, the lament of the 

 blocks when the mainsail is set, the report of the gun, or 

 the clatter of horses' feet. 



Men do not yet know enough how to play in America, 

 and I make this plea to every father and mother to give 

 their attention to growing well-developed animals. Let 

 them turn squarely about, and teach how to play, and how 

 to play fair. Curtail the child in nothing that will tend 

 to develope him physically. Let book-learning take care 



