136 MR. SPONGE'S SPORTING TOUR. 



heart, with all his mind, with all his soul, and with all his 

 strength ; while Jack, still on the grey, came plodding diligently 

 along in the rear, saving his horse as much as he could. His 

 lordship charged a stiff flight of rails in the brick-fields ; while 

 Jack, thinking to save his, rode at a weak place in the fence, a 

 little higher up, and in an instant was souse overhead in a 

 clay-hole. 



" Buck under, Jack ! duck under I " screamed his lordship, as 

 Jack's head rose to the surface. " Duck under! you'll have it full 

 directly ! " added he, eyeing Sponge and the rest coming up. 



Sponge, however, saw the splash, and turning a little lower 

 down, landed safe on sound ground ; while poor Blossomnose, 

 who was next, went floundering overhead also. But the pace was 

 too good to stop to fish them out. 



" Dash it," said Sponge, looking at them splashing about, " but 

 that was a near go for me!" 



Jack being thus disposed of, Sponge, with increased confidence, 

 rose in his stirrups, easing the redoubtable Hercules ; and patting 

 him on the shoulder, at the same time that he gave him the 

 gentlest possible touch of the spur, exclaimed, "By the powers, 

 we'll show these old Flat Hats the trick ! " He then commenced 

 humming — 



Mister Sponge, the raspers taking, 

 Sets the junkers' nerves a shaking ; — 



and riding cheerfully on, he at length found himself on the confines 

 of a wild,"rough-looking moor, with an undulating range of hills 

 in the distance. 



Frostyface and Lord Scamperdale here for the first time diverged 

 from the line the hounds were running, and made for the neck of 

 a smooth, flat, rather inviting-looking piece of ground, instead of 

 crossing it, Sponge, thinking to get a niche, rode to it ; and the 

 " deeper and deeper still " sort of flounder his horse made soon let 

 him know that he was in a bog. The impetuous Hercules rushed 

 and reared onwards as if to clear the wide expanse ; and alighting 

 still lower, shot Sponge right overhead in the middle. 



" That's cooked your goose ! " exclaimed his lordship, eyeing 

 Sponge and his horse floundering about in the black porridge-like 

 mess. 



"Catch my horse !" hallooed Sponge to the first whip, who came 

 galloping up as Hercules was breasting his way out again. 



" Catch him yourself," grunted the man, galloping on. 



A peat-cutter, more humane, received the horse as he emerged 

 from the black sea, exclaiming, as the now-piebald Sponge came 

 lobbing after on foot, " A, sir ! but ye should niver set tee to ride 

 through sic a place as that I " 



