THE NICEST LITTLE HOKSE IN THE WORLD. 15 



behind. His wife and her uncle would probably 

 turn up at the corner of some road or other, for 

 he knew the country as well as the foxes ; but I 

 was just wondering what could have become of 

 my host when Dairymaid hit it off by the poplars 

 in the hedge, the little horse jumped into his 

 bridle, and once more we were away. 



For an hour and ten minutes over a charm- 

 ing country we pursued that good fox, and then 

 he saved his brush in a drain, where he was left 

 to fight another day. After trying two or three 

 other draws, we had a rattling gallop after 

 a second fox;, and about four o'clock, w4ien he 

 seemed to be lost and I was some fifteen miles 

 from home, I pulled up and turned my horse's 

 head homewards. 



No horse coald have gone better. Whether 

 he had a sufiicient turn of speed to w^in a race 

 was perhaps another matter, but as a hunter for 

 a steady-going man, I could well understand his 

 master describing him as the nicest little horse 

 in the w^orld. He travelled home, moreover, as 

 Greenwood had said he would do, "as if he 

 hadn't well started," though w^e had gone far 

 and fast ; and if his master did not like him, 

 nothing but the trifling difficulty of knowing 

 how to put my hand on the money would have 

 prevented me from buying him. 



