"it is our opening day." 55 



over, making a wild grab at his brush as he takes 

 his fence ! Perhaps it is as well for the integrity 

 of her fingers that she missed him. 



Here are the hounds, and this looks like their 

 fox, for he is a bit done, and has evidently 

 been bustled about ; but it is — so far as can be 

 made out, unless ours has doubled back curiously 

 — after another that we presently get away, 

 when at last a shrill " Tally-ho ! " revives our 

 hopes of some fun. Away we tear, down the 

 hillside. It is a good galloping country, with 

 scarcely a fence to be seen, and the man who 

 can go quickest has the best of it. Down one 

 hillside we go, along the bottom, and up another 

 hill by a turn that takes us back again to 

 Assheton Copse ; and there not a hound will 

 speak to him. 



Evidently a fresh draw is the best thing to 

 be tried, and hopes are entertained of something 

 being found in a little covert at the bottom of a 

 particularly steep hill, down which we steer with 

 a good deal of caution, for it is uncommonly 

 ■upright in places. It is just the sort of place for 

 a fox, and welcome notes soon proclaim that 

 somebody is at home. They are on the line 

 this time surely enough, and away they go over 

 the down at a grand pace. Horses and men 

 that have been alike longing for a gallop can 



