50 



THE BEST SEASON ON RECORD. 



affording- sucli an opportunity of observing tlie mimic 

 battle as is seldom given to a sharer in the fray. One 

 would have thought that the sternest scene of warfare 

 was being enacted, so determined and desperate did most 

 of the combatants seem, as two and three abreast they 

 charged home — with hats tightly pressed down, brows 

 darkening, teeth hard set, and eyeballs starting out of 

 their heads. They had not a smile among them ! To 





^ssrgg^g^i^^j'^l^?^^^:^^ 



DETERMINED AND DESPERATE. 



do or die, was the single Mrittcn expression, even on 

 features seldom seen otherwise than moving in merri- 

 ment. The veteran, the beginner, the pilot, the follower 

 — all alike looked serious, glum and defiant. They were 

 raking down-hill at a rasping fence; habit and experience 

 not only bade tliem concentrate all their energies, but 

 whispered that a ftiilure might involve unwelcome conse- 

 cj[uences — and in the preoccupation of the moment they 

 deemed themselves alone and unobserved. Mark the 



