The Hunting Year 



the covert just as hounds came tumbling out 

 over the hedge. They got one brief " look " at 

 him, and then away they went at a good pace, 

 favoured by the wind. For ten minutes they 

 ran cheerily enough, and they were only just 

 behind their fox when he entered a big wood. 

 And when the huntsman got up to them in the 

 middle of the wood, it was to find that they 

 had marked their fox to ground in the main 

 earths which had been badly stopped. What 

 the huntsman said would not look well in print, 

 and his anger was quite justified. 



Young Jones said to young Brown: " He was 

 a good fox and will give us a good run later 

 on," and young Brown said to young Robinson 

 that he was " glad the fox had got in, don't you 

 know, and beaten that bloodthirsty huntsman " ; 

 and young Robinson remarked to young Smith 

 that " for his part he did not see that it mattered 

 whether hounds killed or not." And young 

 Smith, knowing considerably more of the busi- 

 ness than they did, recognised that hounds by 

 an exceptional bit of good luck had had a chance 

 of getting the blood they so much needed, and 



58 



