324 THE BEST OF THE FUN 



tale of how serious a shock occurred to the nervous system 

 of one whom we had deemed superior to any trial of nerve 

 or fear of blood. He had enjoyed his ride, and been one 

 of the first at the kill. And, as holds good on such 

 occasions, he had left the saddle to walk his horse, and 

 fling his jest, round the neighbourhood of the baying 

 pack. After so doing, he posted himself exactly where 

 the fierce dog-hounds of Kineton had first pulled their 

 fox almost to pieces. Chancing to glance downwards as 

 he approached the climax of his last drawing-room tale, 

 he suddenly stopped with his face white as ashes, to gasp 



out, " My ! I've staked the old horse ! " 



Questions of comparative anatomy are difficult indeed 

 to handle delicately. But suffice it to explain that the 

 gore which dyed the grass was not the outcome of the 

 old horse, but of poor Reynard deceased ; and to add 

 that the applause which greeted discovery of our hero's 

 mistake was far in advance of any he might have earned 

 from the bijou of scandal he never finished. 



No trifles interest me more than the pigmies who 

 come out at Christmastide, and enjoy themselves as long 

 as they are allowed into the new year. The little fellows 

 are rapidly disappearing — last week, I take it, being a 

 week of final joys and farewell tears. Yesterday I 

 accosted one sturdy young gentleman with " Halloa, I 

 thought you were back at school?" "I was to have 

 gone yesterday," retorted the youngster with an arch grin, 

 " but mother thought I wasn't looking well, and I asked 

 her to write and say so." To-day a young gentleman, 

 born to fox-hunting, had his answer still more deter- 

 minedly to the point. " I ought to have been back a 

 week ago," he explained unblushingly, " but I got a boil 

 on my right wrist." " That was very clever of you," I 

 could not but reply ; " you must have one on your left 

 this week." As he not only claimed the head of the 

 morning fox, but carried it on his saddlebow all through 

 the afternoon run, besides holding gates open very skil- 

 fully for hounds with the afflicted wrist, I am inclined 

 to think that contagion is certainly likely to spread to his 

 other arm, as is only fair and well deserved. 



