138 MR. SPONGE'S SPORTING TOUR. 



" Oh no ! " replied Sponge. " Oh no !— fell soft— fell soft. 

 More dirt, less hurt — more dirt, less hurt." 



" Why you've been in a bog ! " exclaimed Mr. Puffington, eyeing 

 the much-stained Hercules. 



" Almost over head," replied Sponge. " Scamperdale saw me 

 going, and hadn't the grace to holloa." 



" Ah, that's like him," replied Mr. Puffington, — " that's like 

 him, there's nothing pleases him so much as getting fellows into 

 grief." 



" Not very polite to a stranger," observed Mr. Sponge. 



" No, it isn't," replied Mr. Puffington, — " no, it isn't ; far from 

 it indeed — far from it ; but, low be it spoken," added he, " his 

 lordship is only a roughish sort of customer." 



" So he is," replied Mr. Sponge, who thought it fine to abuse a 

 nobleman. 



" The fact is," said Mr. Puffington, " these Flat Hat chaps are 

 all snobs. They think there are no such fine fellows as themselves 

 under the sun ; and if ever a stranger looks near them, they make 

 a point of being as rude and disagreeable to him as they possibly 

 can. This is what they call keeping the hunt select." 



" Indeed ! " observed Mr. Sponge, recollecting how they had 

 complimented him ; adding, " They seem a queer set." 



" There's a fellow they call ' Jack,' " observed Mr. Puffington, 

 " who acts as a sort of bulldog to his lordship, and worries whoever 

 his lordship sets him upon. He got into a clay-hole a little further 

 back, and a precious splashing he was making, along with the 

 chaplain, old Blossomnose." 



"Ah, I saw him," observed Mr. Sponge. 



" You should come and see my hounds," observed Mr. 

 Puffington. 



" What are they ? " asked Sponge. 



"The Hanby," replied Mr. Puffington. 



" Oh ! then you are Mr. Puffington," observed Sponge, who had 

 a sort of general acquaintance with all the hounds and masters — 

 indeed, with all the meets of all the hounds in the kingdom— which 

 he read in the weekly lists in " Bell's Life," just as he read 

 "Mogg's Cab Fares." " Then you are Mr. Puffington ? " observed 

 Sponge. 



" The same," replied the stranger. 



" I'll have a look at you," observed Sponge ; adding, " Do you 

 take in horses ? " 



" Yours, of course," replied Mr. Puffington, bowing ; adding 

 something about great public characters, which Sponge didn't 

 understand. 



" I'll be down upon you, as the extinguisher said to the 

 rushlight," observed Mr. Sponge. 



