A January Frost 



hopes to win the Farmers' Plate at the Hunt 

 Meeting: and the ride over to Broadacres' farm 

 in the sharp air will have given him a healthy 

 appetite ; and Mrs Broadacres' cheese and cake 

 and nut-brown ale, pressed on him with such 

 kindly hospitality, will be duly appreciated. 

 The conversation will naturally drop from sport 

 to farming, and Broadacres, like the good fellow 

 he is, volunteers to ride over to Oatlands to 

 show his visitor Mr Cropley's Shire horses. A 

 couple of miles' ride will bring them to their 

 destination, and Mr Cropley — no hunting man 

 himself — recognises his visitor as one who 

 regularly rides over his land, and is pleased that 

 he should take an interest in the young Shire 

 horses he is making ready for the forthcoming 

 show at the Agricultural Hall. 



More bread and cheese and nut-brown ale or 

 perhaps an invitation to stop to luncheon, and 

 the conversation passes from Shire horses and 

 farming to hunting, and Mr Cropley tells how, 

 during the storm the foxes have gathered to- 

 gether in Oatlands Wood, and how they are 



becoming rather daring in their raids on the 



in 



