146 THE BEST OF THE FUN 



to lighten a weary hour with the strange and merry 

 memory. 



Adown the thicket, then, hounds threw their tongues 

 iieartily, while I drew my old timekeeper from its fob and 

 wondered what might come next. The fire of chase was 

 kindled, and the glow of expectation and excitement fairly 

 lit within us. Now the pack had overshot the line, and 

 the Master drew them gently back along the outer edge of 

 the wood, towards which the balance of possibilities pointed 

 as direction. " Yoi over ! " and they were away, huntsman 

 and whip leading forth from the leafy branches, as through 

 a paper hoop, in order to gain the stubble-field in their 

 wake. I believe that it was an old snake fence that they 

 jumped ; but I was far too eager to push my face through 

 the overhanging branches to do more than give Shipmate 

 the ofBce to follow, and sit tight as he rose. Forrard they 

 stream ! Now, if there is one sight upon earth that has 

 power to lift me several heavens above it, to bid heart and 

 spirit spring forward as if with no dragging clay attached, 

 to thrust out of thought all else in the world — aye, even 

 grovelling fear-^-it is a pack of hounds flying to a head, 

 while a good horse endorses their glad appeal. Is it not 

 so with you ? If not, then cast me aside ; for this brief 

 story is only of myself, who imagine that you would have 

 felt and thought as I did. In my place you would have 

 followed almost automatically over the sturdy post-and- 

 rails beyond the wood, well content, then, to have got 

 beyond them, and right thankful that your host's good 

 mount apparently deserved his reputation — wondering 

 also, possibly, as you glanced forward, what proportion, 

 or if even a substratum, of truth had lain in the comforting 

 words of the Master as he rode from the meet. '' Very 

 big and gaunt these fences look ! " we had remarked ; 

 adding, with a jauntiness we were far from feeling, " But 

 they say the horses here jump them well enough." " Oh, 

 you'll find some rails down, or a gap, in almost every 

 one," he had answered. And we had believed him, as the 

 artless miner believed the Heathen Chinee. 



See ! What is he doing now ? Where are the rails down, 

 and where is the gap ? Six foot of timber, surely— and 



