320 Cross Country with Horse and Hound 



were all to be rewarded with bread-crumbs, as the custom 

 is at the kennels when visitors call. Poor Mr. Unsophisti- 

 cated, unable either to go forward or go back, began to 

 dance and jump and gesticulate like one shooing a flock of 

 chickens. Everybody was soon laughfng at the strange 

 figure he cut. Finally, upon the whippers-in coming to his 

 rescue, the hounds broke away, and the poor fellow man- 

 aged to work his way out, though his mission was yet 

 unaccomplished. He now made bold to deliver his mes- 

 sage to the huntsman from the circle, to the renewed 

 amusement of everybody. 



" Really," was all the satisfaction he got out of the 

 huntsman, who had been caught with such chaff before, 

 " I have not consulted the Master about it yet this morning." 



Thereupon the unsuccessful mercury rushed away to the 

 house amid shouts of laughter from the country people, 

 whose enjoyment of the city fellow's experience was 

 unconcealed. The huntsman's " yet this morning " saved 

 his reputation for the truth and pleased them hugely. It 

 was indeed a close shave, as one who was present at the 

 consultation of war will recall. 



So Mrs. So-and-So, foiled again, waits until she sees the 

 direction hounds are taking, and rushes away past all the 

 riders, her horses on a run. Seeing this, the Master rides 

 alongside of the huntsman and says: "Try no covert where 

 drivers or townspeople are assembled." 



This may upset all the well-laid plans of the night 

 before. Fox-hunting, as we have shown, is a game of plot 

 and counter-plot. The huntsman, a passed master in his art, 

 decides on a ruse that sends Mrs. So-and-So, and a dozen 



