WILL GOODALL'S LAST GALLOP 



445 



covertside smile with which our cheery field is wont to 

 begin its day, whatever change of feature may be brought 

 about by after-anxieties and little troubles. Each gate 

 weighed a ton, and few knees and fewer tempers, I 

 warrant, passed through that hour's ordeal altogether 

 untouched, however little such mischances were counted 



It was a dreadful morning 



afterward. Worse than all, the glass was going downhill 

 with no brake on, and the heavens were gloomy with rain 

 clouds. Never again, as I have sworn many a time before, 

 will I commit myself to forecasts of sport or prophecy of 

 scent. At last I am quite safe in saying " I have never 

 seen the weather in which hounds cannot run." Yet, 

 two further conditions of the day must I give you, viz. a 

 northerly wind and the ground full of moisture. 



