A SHARP BURST AND A HARD RUN. 107 



tlie rivulet, a muddy drain falls into it, with an osier 

 patch of about two acres in the angle between the two ; 

 this the pack had already passed, when on a sudden 

 they threw up tlieir heads, and were at fault badly. 

 On the instant Fairfax was out of his saddle, in an- 

 other Moonbeam's nose was well to windward, and 

 half a pint of sherry from his master's flask was down 

 his gullet, and his nostrils sponged out, for the first 

 time, probably, in his life with a cambric handkerchief, 

 redolent of extrait de jockey-club. 



" The best thing of the season by all odds," said Sir 

 Richard Musgrave, looking at his watch; " five miles 

 and a half as the crow flies in twenty-three minutes !" 



'' I wish you joy, Fairfax," cried Beaufort, good- 

 naturedly. "If this is really your first day with 

 fox-hounds, though I can scarce believe it." 



"His first day!" said Musgrave, laughing. "He 

 has been at it all my life." 



"No he only takes to it very kindly;" said Matus- 

 chevitz, laughing ; "as I was sure he would to any 

 thing, when I saw him stick a pig that every body 

 else was afraid of, in a chasse aux sangliers near 

 Kennes." 



" No, but you don't mean that it is really your first 

 day, Colonel Fairfax;" said Dick Musgrave; "for if 

 you do, this is a — a — I don't know what." 



"A d — d thing,'' said Jardinier, who had just come 

 up with his horse limping, and himself dripping ; " a 

 d — d thing, ain't it, to be done this way?" 



"It is really my first day in England," said Fair- 

 fax, quietly. 



" In England ! — why where do they hunt foxes 

 else? In England, quoth'a!" said Holyoke, laughing. 



" In Virginia, a little ; though not in such style, 

 certainly, nor across such a country," he replied. 



" Virginia ! Where the deuce is that ?" asked Jar- 



