56 



THE BEST OF THE FUN 



made a dive in hot haste for a stone. It turned out to 

 be a turnip ; but it sped Hke a parachute across the lane, 

 and nothing but the high bank saved me. But he had 

 demonstrated beyond contradiction how, under certain 

 seasonable conditions, a straight narrow road could be 

 converted into a broad one — in his instance leading to the 

 village council at the Blue Boar. 



Now to fox-hunting, for which we assembled on 

 Wednesday — not a great crowd, for Crick. Welcome 



Covertside greetings 



indeed was the warm drizzle (save and except for such 

 few of our number as ride handicapped with glass in hat 

 or eye) ; welcome even was the soft, wet ground ; and 

 thrice welcome were covertside greetings and meetings 

 after nearly a fortnight's interruption. If men wore a 

 well-fed, hearty bearing, horses added in several instances 

 a silly exuberance that served to set a mark upon at least 

 four coats, before hounds found their fox. As these coats, 

 however, as far as I saw, belonged wholly to second- 

 horsemen — entrusted, no doubt, with the part of " getting 

 young Termagant's back down " with a view to master's 



