128 MR. SPONGE'S SPORTING TOUR. 



" Plenty of foxes, I assure you, my lord ! " exclaimed Jawleyford. 

 " Plenty of foxes ! " repeated he. 



" We never find them, then, somehow," observed his lordship, 

 drily ; "at least none but those three-legged beggars in the laurels 

 at the back of the stables." 



" Ah ! that will be the fault of the hounds," replied Jawley- 

 ford ; " they don't take sufficient time to draw — run through the 

 covers too quickly." 



" Fault of the hounds be hanged ! " exclaimed Jack, who was 

 the champion of the pack generally. " There's not a more patient, 

 painstaking pack in the world than his lordship's." 



" Ah — well — ah — never mind that," replied his lordship, " Jaw 

 and you can settle that point over your wine to-morrow ; mean- 

 while, if your friend Mr. What's-his-name here, '11 get his horse," 

 continued his lordship, addressing himself to Jawleyford, but 

 looking at Sponge, who was still on the piebald, " we'll throw off." 



" Thank you, my lord," replied Sponge ; " but I'll mount at the 

 cover side." Sponge not being inclined to let the Flat Hat Hunt 

 Field see the difference of opinion that occasionally existed 

 between the gallant brown and himself. 



" As you please," rejoined his lordship, " as you please," jerking 

 his head at Frostyface, who forthwith gave the office to the 

 hounds ; whereupon all was commotion. Away the cavalcade 

 went, and in less than five minutes the late bustling village 

 resumed its wonted quiet ; the old man on sticks, two crones 

 gossiping at a door, a rag-or-anything-else-gatherer going about 

 with a donkey, and a parcel of dirty children tumbling about on 

 the green, being all that remained on the scene. All the able- 

 bodied men had followed the hounds. Why the hounds had ever 

 climbed the long hill seemed a mystery, seeing that they returned 

 the way they came. 



Jawleyford, though sore disconcerted at having " Jack " 

 pawned upon him, stuck to my lord, and rode on his right with 

 the air of a general. He felt he was doing his duty as an English- 

 man in thus patronising the hounds — encouraging a manly spirit, 

 of independence, and promoting our unrivalled breed of horses. 

 The post-boy trot at which hounds travel, to be sure, is not well 

 adapted for dignity ; but Jawleyford flourished and vapoured as 

 well as he could under the circumstances, and considering they 

 were going down hill. Lord Scamperdale rode along, laughing iu 

 his sleeve at the idea of the pleasant evening Jack and Jawleyford 

 ■would have together, occasionally complimenting Jawleyford on 

 the cut and condition of his horse, and advising him to be careful 

 of the switching raspers with which the country abounded, and 

 which might be fatal to his nice nutmeg-coloured trousers. The 

 rest of the "field" followed, the fall of the ground enabling them 



