318 Cross Country with Horse and Hound 



to a friend, all rising and falling, falling and rising in their 

 stirrups to the trot-toe-trot, trot-toe-trot, of their well-man- 

 nered steeds. 



One pathetic exception is our friend who put his horse 

 in a temper as he was mounting. He goes waltzing past 

 the crowd with his horse in a lather less than a hundred 

 rods from the meet. Pulling and sawing, tugging and 

 pulling his poor horse only makes a bad matter worse ; and 

 all for the want of being one minute calmer in mounting. 



More comfortable riders take this opportunity for look- 

 ing about and counting up the riders seventy-two in all, 

 including several ladies or gossiping a bit on the way. 



Who is that driving past the riders with her horses in a 

 gallop ? 



" Oh, that 's Mrs. So-and-So. She knows the country, 

 and from the direction the hounds are taking she guesses 

 the covert they are headed for. She always waits until the 

 crowd is well on the way, then rushes past." 



As a matter of fact, the lady asked the Master what 

 covert he was going to draw first. It was a little comedy 

 which did not escape a few of the knowing ones at the 

 start. 



" Well, really," replied the Master, in his politest man- 

 ner, " you had better ask the huntsman." 



Diverting her to the huntsman's track was a clever trick 

 indeed, in which he was justified, because he knew the 

 huntsman could cope with Mrs. So-and-So and her bab- 

 bling tongue. She is particularly fond of being the first to 

 whisper a matter to her intimates, and he is aware that by 

 the time hounds reach the covert to be drawn, if she car- 



