318 THE EASTERN" HUNTERS. 



an injury while riding a pig ? " inquired the Padre, 

 now thoroughly astonished. 



" Certainly," the officer answered, himself won- 

 dering considerably at the clergyman's surprise at 

 so simple a circumstance. " Certainly, I repeat, my 

 friend got his fall in riding a fine boar." 



"A fine boar !" ejaculated the parson. "Really, 

 Captain Jones, you must excuse my astonishment, 

 being only so short a time in the country ; but I 

 was, till now, quite unaware that officers amused 

 themselves by riding pigs. It seems so very odd a 

 sport, and I should also think one very difficult of 

 acquirement. Is it not very hard to sit them ? " 



Captain Jones had been opening his eyes wider 

 and wider, as his guest thus expressed himself 

 regarding so well-known and famed a sport as 

 " boar-hunting ; " and it was only as the parson 

 concluded, that it occurred to him that his words 

 had been taken literally, to mean that his injured 

 friend had actually met with the accident while 

 riding on a pig. 



He lost no time, however, in undeceiving the 

 innocent chaplain, who joined in the laugh which 

 his ignorance gave rise to. 



Mackenzie, on this day at dinner, produced a tin 

 of " Highland mutton," as there was no game, and 

 nothing but a couple of half -starved fowls to be had. 



