The Hunt Dinner 345 



display the same, ' you say you were not out last Thursday. 

 You missed a sight. I was on Rory O'More ; and what a 

 clipper he is, to be sure ! Not a better hunter ever looked 

 through a bridle. Well, sir, Rory and I left the whole 

 field as if they were standing. The first I knew, I was 

 alone with the hounds. The huntsman was shouting at 

 me from several fields behind ; but I had no time to bother 

 with him or the Master or the rest of them chappies trail- 

 ing on after. I was doing my darnedest to ease up a bit, 

 like any other good Christian, but, my sakes ! don't you 

 make a mistake ; when hounds run, Rory O'More is going 

 with them. A fence stood up in front of us. Gee whiz ! 

 but it was a regular church. Yet Rory would have it, and, 

 as I live, he cleared it without a tick ; six foot three and 

 three quarter inches, by actual measure. I see we were in 

 for a real buster, and, oh, Lord ! another fence with a drop 

 of ten feet on the landing-side. I roasted Rory one with 

 my crop, and darn my eyes if he did n't take it in his 

 stride. Well, that fence stopped the field, and when I had 

 gone on and killed our fox, and done the obsequies in the best 

 of style, who should come riding up but the Master and 

 huntsman. The way they stared at me, you would have 

 thought they had seen a ghost. What a wonder that Rory 

 O'More is ! I say, Doctor, you don't know of any one that 

 wants to buy the best hunter in the United States cheap as 

 bullock beef, do you ? ' 



"Well," continued the Doctor, " I saw there was going 

 to be no end of it, and as our liveryman had forgotten to 

 say what he came after, I said I must go. Imagine my 

 surprise when I met Bankclerk, that evening, to learn that 



