THE NICEST LITTLE HOESE IN THE WOKLD. 13 



measured the distance, and was up with excep- 

 tional rapidity. I never got on a horse so 

 quickly in my life, and, determined not to give 

 him time to buck if he had any malicious inten- 

 tion of the sort, I sat as tight as I knew how 

 and set him going down the green lane. To do 

 him justice, he went kindly and well, pulling, 

 too, sufficiently to show that apprehensions of 

 upsetting him by an injudicious touch of the 

 reins were unfounded. 



And I was none too soon. As I neared the 

 spinney and saw part of the field, a burst of 

 music came from among the trees, and the men 

 towards whom I was progressing started off, 

 while " Tally-ho ! gone away ! " resounded from 

 the other side of the covert. 



I looked back, and was not quite certain 

 whether I saw my friends coming on as we sped 

 round the corner of the spinney. To check the 

 little horse, who was going so beautifully, was 

 out of the question, however, and on we sped 

 over a big grass field and through a gate at the 

 other end of it, then abruptly to the right and 

 on to what was luckily a low and thin hedge. 

 "Don't check him, and hold him together," 

 were my instructions, and I endeavoured to 

 fulfil them, though I had begun to feel that 

 there was no reason for special caution, and to 



