132 A Run 



the feminine members of his family to be the best-look- 

 ing animal in the hunt. A horse which ladies call a 

 * sweetly pretty creature ' is not always a good hunter, 

 and does not even necessarily look like one. Sapp's 

 chesnut has a graceful head and an arched neck ; the 

 golden colour is specially bright, as he is kept in an oven- 

 like stable which improves his coat to the certain ruin 

 of his health. Yery upright shoulders and very straight 

 forelegs are not supposed, or not understood, in the Sapp 

 family, to be detrimental, not to say dangerous, for a 

 hunter. When these shoulders are furthermore loaded, 

 as in the case of the chesnut, the ' howling cropper ' 

 which has been confidently anticipated for Sapp by all 

 who have seen the pair at work and are familiar with the 

 points of a horse, resolves into a matter of time — sure to 

 come sooner or later. A bit of a drop in the landing 

 side of the last fence has brought it off. Sapp cannot 

 understand it. 



No one is going better now than young Maizeley, son 

 of our old friend, mounted on a clever four-year-old bay 

 mare that his father has bred and he has made. She 

 is as clever as a cat, has flown the big places, hopped 

 smartly and without effort over an awkward stile in the 

 corner, in a manner which will doubtless lead to the 

 accomplishment of her rider's desire— to sell her ; though 

 at the same time, whatever may be his father's senti- 

 ments, he will be sorry to part from so sweet a mount. 

 When presently she picks her way over a brook at the 

 bottom of a descent, and, landing on the only sound bit 

 of turf, about two feet square, neatly slips over a rail 

 that rises beyond, Sylvanson, who has not quite seen how 

 best to surmount the obstacle, and has w^aited to note 

 how Maizeley accomplishes it, determines that the good 



