REDPAD THE FOX 
29 
' Yes,' said the master ; ' you shall turn him 
down yourself.' 
So Paddy began to ascend the tree with a sack 
in one hand and his coat wrapped round the other. 
When he was about half-way up the tree he came 
face to face with Redpad, and the fox looked up 
with a snarl, but he could retreat no further up the 
trunk. Magragh crept closer and held out his coat. 
Quick as lightning Redpad buried his double row of 
ivory fangs in it. But it was too thick for them 
to reach the. hand inside, and Magragh, seizing him 
by the back of the neck, tumbled him into the sack. 
Redpad was let loose in the middle of the Big 
Meadow. When the sack-mouth was opened, he 
went away like an arrow without a glance behind. 
' Good luck to yez,' said Paddy Magragh, ' for, 
begob, 'tis a great hunt ye '11 give them to-day.' 
It is a true saying that a bagged fox will not run 
far, but this was not so with Redpad, for he knew 
every inch of the country, and besides, he had 
not been long enough in the sack to grow cramped. 
He flew over the short grass, and as he cleared the 
demesne wall he heard the pack open behind him. 
To the south lay Carricktriss with its rocks and 
heather blue in the distance ; down in the plain ,, 
there was Sutcliffe's Gorse, surrounded by wet fields 
where the horses would sink fetlock deep at every 
