ME. SPONGE'S SPOETING TOUE. 329 



him ; and, considering that his paws were all over raspberry jam, 

 our friend would as soon have dispensed with his attentions. Mrs. 

 Jog was all smiles, and Jog all scowls. 



A little after ten our friend, cigar in mouth, was in the saddle. 

 Mrs. Jog, with Gustavus James in her arms, and all the children 

 clustering about, stood in the passage to see him start, and watch the 

 capers and caprioles of the piebald, as he ambled down the avenue. 



" Nine miles — nine miles," muttered Mr. Sponge to himself, as 

 he passed through the Lodge and turned up the Quarryburn Road ; 

 " do it in an hour well enough," said he, sticking spurs into the 

 hack, and cantering away. 



Having kept this pace up for about five miles, till he thought 

 from the view he had taken of the map it was about time to be 

 turning, he hailed a blacksmith in his shop, who, next to saddlers, 

 are generally the most intelligent people about hounds, and asked 

 how far it was to Sir Harry's ? 



" Eight miles," replied the man, in a minute. 



" Impossible ! " exclaimed Mr. Sponge. " It was only nine at 

 starting, and I've come I don't know how many." 



The next person Mr. Sponge met told him it was ten miles ; the 

 third, after asking him where he had come from, said he was a 

 stranger in the country, and had never heard of the place ; and, 

 what with Mr. Leather's original mis-statement, misdirections from 

 other people, and mistakes of his own, it was more good luck than 

 good management that got Mr. Sponge to Nonsuch House in time. 



The fact was, the whole hunt was knocked up in a hurry. Sir 

 Harry, and the choice spirits by whom he was surrounded, had not 

 finished celebrating the triumphs of the Snobston Green day, and 

 as it was not likely that the hounds would be out again soon, the 

 people of the hunting establishment were taking their ease. 

 Watchorn had gone to be entertained at a public supper given by 

 the poachers and fox-stealers of the village of Bark-shot, as a 

 " mark of respect for his abilities as a sportsman and his integrity 

 as a man," meaning his indifference to his master's interests ; while 

 the first-whip had gone to visit his aunt, and the groom was away 

 negotiating the exchange of a cow. With things in this state, 

 wily Tom of Tinklerhatch, a noted fox-stealer in Lord Scamper- 

 dale's country, had arrived with a great thundering dog fox, stolen 

 from his lordship's cover near the cross roads at Dallington Burn, 

 which being communicated to our friends about midnight in the 

 smoking room at Nonsuch House, it was resolved to hunt him 

 forthwith, especially as one of the guests, Mr. Orlando Bugles, of 

 the Surrey Theatre, was obliged to return to town immediately, and, 

 as he sometimes enacted the part of Squire Tallyho, it was thought 

 a little of the reality might correct the Tom and Jerry style in 

 which he did it. Accordingly, orders were issued for a hunt, 



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