A lie NTS MAN. 143 



thoughts were in the kennels and the stables, and every 

 spare moment he could find was sjDent in hovering 

 around these most delightful precincts ; while with 

 every cur in the village he was on the most confidential 

 terms. Of the puppies at walk he knew as much as 

 Sir Henry or the Huntsman himself, and on hunting 

 days, if he could contrive to make a holiday, it was 

 spent in seeing as much of the sport as sturdy young 

 legs, stout lungs, and an instinctive eye for a country, 

 rendered possible. 



His father was a little dismayed, though of course at 

 the Hall hunting was the principal occupation, and 

 absolutely to discourage a love for it would have been 

 out of the question on the part of any one who served 

 • Sir Henry. Young Bill, moreover, was a good lad, a 

 favourite with everybody; so that if his natural long- 

 ings were not encouraged they were not checked. 



The Hall is some five or six miles from the post town, 

 and it was the custom to send the bag every night by 

 a groom to post, as by this arrangement letters could 

 be sent some hour or more later than they must have 

 gone had they been carried by the itinerant postman. 

 Bill had occasionally found means of getting a ride, and 

 when he was about fourteen he had an excellent oppor- 

 tunity of acquiring the rudiments of horsemanship in 

 the best possible way. 



The groom whose duty it was to take the post-bag 

 found metal very much more attractive in the opposite 

 direction. Some four miles from the Hall was — and is 



