316 mr. sponge's sporting tour. 



reached Cockthropple Dean, the field was choked by the pace. Sir 

 Harry had long been tailed off; both the brothers Spangles had 

 dropped astern ; the horse of one had dropped too ; Sawbone's, the 

 doctor's, had got a stiff neck ; "Willing, the road surveyor, and Mr. 

 Lavender, the grocer, pulled up together. Muddyman, the farmer's, 

 four-year-old had enough at the end of ten minutes ; both the whips 

 tired theirs in a quarter of an hour ; and in less than twenty minutes 

 Watchorn and Sponge were alone in their glory, or rather Sponge 

 was in his glory, for Watchorn's horse was beat. 



" Lend me }^our horn ! " exclaimed Sponge, as he heard by the 

 hammer and pincering of Watchorn's horse, it was all U P with 

 him. 



The horse stopped as if shot ; and getting the horn, Mr. Sponge 

 went on, the brown laying himself out as if still full of running. 

 Cockthropple Dean was now close at hand, and in all probability the 

 fox would not leave it. So thought Mr. Sponge as he dived into it, 

 astonished at the chorus and echo of the hounds. 



" Tally-ho ! " shouted a countryman on the opposite side ; and 

 the road Sponge had taken being favorable to the point, he made for 

 it at a hand gallop, horn in hand, to blow as soon as he got there. 



" He's away ! " cried the man as soon as our friend appeared ; 

 " reet 'cross tornops ! " added he, pointing with his hoe. 



Mr. Sponge then put his horse's head that way, and blew a long 

 shrill reverberating blast. As he paused to take breath and listen, 

 he heard the sound of horses' hoofs, and presently a stentorian voice, 

 half frantic with rage, exclaimed from behind, 

 " Who the Dickens are you ? " 



" Who the Dickens are you ? " retorted Mr. Sponge, without 

 looking round 



" They commonly call me the Earl of Scamperdale," roared 

 the same sweet voice, " and those are my hounds." 



" They^re not your hounds ! " snapped Mr. Sponge, now looking 

 round on his big-spectacled, flat-hatted lordship, who was closely 

 followed by his double, Mr. Spraggon. 



" Not my hounds ! " screeched his lordship. " Oh, ye barber's 

 apprentice! Oh, ye diaper's assistant! Oh, ye unmitigated Ma- 

 homedon ! Sing out, Jack ! sing out ! For Heaven's sake sing out!" 

 added he, throwing out his arms in perfect despair. 



" Not his lordship's hounds ! " roared Jack, now rising in his 

 stirrups and brandishing his big whip. " Not his lordship's hounds ! 

 Tell me that, when they cost him iive-and-twenty 'underd — two thou- 

 sand five 'underd a-year ! Oh, by Jingo, but that's a pretty go ! If 

 they're not his lordship's hounds, I should like to know whose they 

 are ? " and thereupon Jack wiped the foam from his mouth on his 

 sleeve. 



