LONG ISLAND, NEW YORK 151 



respect to every agriculturist who, while entertaining a 

 proper hatred of wire, is yet averse to having his fences 

 knocked down. I warrant you that friend Titus seldom, 

 if ever, finds a panel broken. 



By this time I had assumed sufficient confidence to 

 consider myself justified in once more attempting a line of 

 my own, rather than continue to follow blindly in the 

 footsteps of a guide, however talented and trustworthy. 

 Accordingly, as the pack hit the line after a brief check, I 

 cut myself loose as it were from my leading-strings, and 

 set forth to walk alone ; that is to say, I left the Master 

 riding on the left of his pack, while I strode forth on the 

 right — riding " wide of hounds," as his Lordship might 

 forcibly recommend, that thus on hounds swinging to fault 

 one may be pretty sure to find oneself among some of them 



and be . I soon discovered, however, that to an 



arrangement of this kind there must be two consenting 

 parties. No sooner had I topped the boundary of the 

 next ten-acre pasture than I found myself confronted by 

 another roadway, with hounds just diving through the fence 

 beyond. This lane, too, was flanked by the same uncom- 

 promising timber, and this lane also held out a drop to 

 the coming " lepper." However, we had managed such be- 

 fore : so I hardened my heart, and imagined myself already 

 half over. Not so old Shipmate. He had no idea of being 

 fooled thus by an ignorant Britisher. " No, sir ! " he 

 said, plainer than words, " I guess the Master's lead is good 

 enough for me ; " and therewith he stuck his head against 

 one of the middle bars, and pulled up dead short. I turned 

 him still further from hounds, and sent him with both 

 spurs in his ribs full tilt at the barrier at right angles to us. 

 More determinedly than ever he stopped in the last stride. 

 The situation became appalling. Here was I, as com- 

 pletely penned as a steer in a stockyard. Desperately I 

 twisted him round ; and, setting his head for the fourth 

 side of the great corral, brought arms and legs and tongue 

 to assist in a final despairing charge. Whether it was the 

 strange sting of the last-named implement — sharpened on 

 many a foreign whetstone — or whether, as is more likely, 

 the present course exactly chimed in with his own pre- 



