Suggestion for Beginners—A Rabbit Hunt 57 
ing like fox terriers after a neighbor's cat, he prob¬ 
ably would not have written of ‘voices matched like 
bells’.” And yet that is the way it should be; the 
voices of a pack of beagles in full cry should be 
as harmonious as a well drilled orchestra. Never¬ 
theless, we do hear melodious voices now and then, 
and it is because we know that they do exist that 
the desire is expressed for more of them. Select 
your beagle for his hunting qualities, but if you want 
real pleasure afield, see that he has a voice that will 
be music among the hills. 
The pair of over-sized beagles that I alluded to 
earlier in this chapter, were fortunately the posses¬ 
sors of exceedingly musical and well matched voices 
and I believe it was mainly because of this that the 
purchaser kept them, despite the fact that they were 
to large for field trial or bench show competition. 
Perhaps I might say overweight also, for the dog, 
whose kennel name was Bill, weighed close to 
twenty-six pounds; while Belle, the bitch, tipped 
the scales at twenty-four. 
How well I recall a frosty morning in October, 
many years ago! In those days the season opened 
earlier than it does now and this new owner of the 
over-sized beagles wanted me to see them in action. 
All was agreed the previous night and just before 
daylight, on a beautiful autumnal day, he came 
after me, stopping at the house with the old sorrel 
mare hitched to a box buggy (there were no auto¬ 
mobiles those days), and the two beagles stowed 
away comfortably on a pallet of straw in the bed 
of the vehicle. It was cool and crisp, but there was 
no frost, and a slight humidity in the atmosphere 
