SCIENCE OF FOXHUNTING. 215 



" Ay, ay, master Tom ! " muttered Dick, " that 

 hit or miss sort of thing wouldn't do over our 

 flints and fallows ; but the young dog has got the 

 start of me through that trick/' and our hero 

 laboured hard to catch them again, for some little 

 time in vain. Tom, however, was soon in diffi- 

 culties with a large flock of Leicester sheep, which 

 seemed bent on hunting his fox for him, and did 

 so to the fence, before Jem and Jack could divert 

 them from their purpose. Tom was not deterred 

 by this misadventure, but holding them forward, as 

 usual, with a swinging cast, just missed the upper 

 corner of the field, where two fences met, and 

 which the fox had threaded. Dick had time now 

 to recover lost ground, and on coming up he found 

 a hard-riding sporting yeoman, off his horse, 

 standing in that corner of the field. 



"Killed him?" asked Dick. 



" Oh ! no, he is not half killed yet ; but if I 

 know anything about foxhunting, here is the line 

 of our fox, towards which some of the hounds were 

 inclining, when Clearwell hurried them away ; and 

 here I shall remain until he finds out his mistake." 



" Why don't you halloa him back, then ? " 



11 Not I ; he knows too much or too little to 

 suit my ideas of what a huntsman ought to be." 



Woodcraft, feeling impatient, whilst the fox was 

 running in one direction and the hounds trying 

 in another, could not forbear a loud " Yoi-haufc ! " 

 (pronounced long as Y-o-i-i-h-a-u-t), signifying, in 

 hunting parlance, hold hard and try back, and 

 Tom, taking the hint, wheeled round towards the 



