A LATE RELEASE 71 



coming, and the puppies must go, poor little ones, to 

 discipline and confinement, the two most irksome con- 

 ditions possible to impose upon man, horse, or dog. 

 Just as they have become companionable, they are carried 

 off by the kennel-cart, and they leave a sad void behind 

 them. All their ingenious freaks of iniquity, all the hot 

 water into which they have so persistently plunged one, 

 all the taxes they have levied in the shape of damage to 

 neighbours or of wanton destruction at home — all their 

 crimes are forgotten, and one would give much to have 

 them and their droll mischief-making back again. Day 

 after day they have been lumbering delightfully after the 

 one old hare on the property, filling up the intervals 

 with chasing or being chased by the foals, their sworn 

 playfellows, or with throwing their tongues in cautious 

 defiance at the great black bullocks of a neighbour's 

 pasture. Now they have gone to make acquaintance 

 with whipcord and repression, perhaps to die of dis- 

 temper and home-sickness (which finishes of¥ many an 

 ailing puppy), perhaps to be drafted to Russia or Madras, 

 but perhaps to lead us again and again, from Shuckburgh 

 or from Crick. 



CHAPTER XI 



A LATE KP: LEASE 



If hunting went on the whole year round, as it may in 

 some planet, or in some future hunting-ground, an 

 occasional frost might provide a charming interlude, as, 

 for instance, when we all go a-Christmassing, or when 

 young men and maids foregather for hunt balls. Even a 

 twelve o'clock meet scarcely makes hunting chime in 

 with the latter, while, as for a 9.30 innovation, it has to 

 be surrendered at discretion, like some of Mr. Balfour's 

 well-intended safeguards. 



But a frost in latter February has about as much to 

 recommend it as a week's rain for Ascot or a tempest 

 for Henlev. It is a keen, irretrievable misfortune, and is 



