152 SKETCHES IN THE HUNTING FIELD. 



While the Whip is the stern schoolmaster, the Hunts- 

 man is the friend and companion of his hounds ; but 

 Bill's temper was always kind and gentle, and he had 

 never failed to retain the affection of his charges as well 

 as to insure obedience. 



To the abstruse question of breeding hounds Bill 

 Heigh devotes himself with untiring diligence, and his 

 excellent judgment in this matter is, of course, the 

 foundation of his success as a Huntsman. Another 

 secret is that he " does not worry his hounds w^hen they 

 are doing their business." His patience is inexhaustible. 



'' I let them think it out for themselves, and don't 

 interfere until they ask me. If they give it up it's my 

 turn to try," he says. 



He invariably knows, too, what hounds are doing, 

 being thoroughly acquainted with the dispositions and 

 tempers of all his charges. 



Oftener than most people suppose a hound pretends 

 to be very busy when he is doing nothing, but Bill is 

 never deceived in these cases. He knows which to 

 trust and when to trust him. In every pack there are 

 hounds with different special qualifications — some patient 

 and plodding, slow and sure ; others brilliant and dash- 

 ing ; some that will gaily race away, trusting, as it 

 were, to the rest, and only desiring to be well ahead ; 

 and others that want to make certain before all things 

 that they are right, and that the fox is in front of them. 

 Bill's ear and eye never seem to deceive him, and he 

 can in fact trust to either. 



