350 SYSTEM OF KENNEL AND 



proved too good a jockey for them all. Pass him 

 they could not ; and the further they went, the fur- 

 ther went the hounds before them. 



"Now, Coventry/' cried George Tracy, as they rode 

 neck and neck together, " now is your time to ride 

 over some of these slow bow-wowing brutes, as you 

 called them the other day. The old squire is not 

 here to rate you." 



"Who would have thought it, George not I, 

 certainly that they could go such a trimming pace 

 over the turf? By gad, I can't catch them." 



" They have nothing to carry, and your horse and 

 mine have, that makes some difference ; and then, 

 you see, the fox is close before them." 



" I can't see him if you can." 



" Then cast your eye forward, and you will discern 

 something like a rook skimming along, straight 

 ahead of them." 



" If that's the fox, he's a precious little one, and I 

 wonder how he can go such a pace." 



"The distance makes him look small; but he is as 

 big and stout an old warrior as I have seen for many 

 a day, although the hounds are now getting nearer 

 and nearer to his brush at every stride ; and have 

 him they will in less than another mile." 



" Oh, me ! what a purl that chap has got to the 

 right," exclaimed Sam ; " that comes of riding over 

 old cartways covered with grass, which none but a 

 wide-awake fellow knows how to take. By Jove ! it 

 must have been a stunner, for, although up in the 

 saddle, he is riding away from the hounds." 



