Ask Mamma

inal

ride, exhorting the young hounds to dive into the strong sea of gorse. "Y-o-o-icks! wind him! y-o-o-icks! pash him up!" cheered the veteran, now turning his horse across to enforce the request. There was his lordship at the high corner as usual, ensconced among the clump of weather-beaten blackthorns-thorns that had neither advanced nor receded a single inch since he first knew them,-his eagle eye fixed on the narrow fern and coarse grass-covered dell down which Reynard generall

re he goes acr

ries his

respond

sounds

hound seems to consider himself personally aggrieved,-though we will be bound to say the fox and he never met in their lives,-and to be bent upon having immediate satisfaction. And immediate, any tyro would think it must necessarily be, seeing such preponderating influence brought t

; and though Speed screeched, and screamed, and yelled, as if he were getting kille

d bank of the north fence, and has about made up his mind to follow the example of his comrades, and try his luck in the open, when a cannonading crack of Swan's whip strikes terror into his heart, and causes him to turn tail, and run the moss-grown mound of the hedge. Here he unexpectedly meets young Prodigal face to face, who, thinking that rabbit may be as good eating as fox, has got up a little hunt of his own, and who is considerably put out of countenance by the rencontre; but pug, not anticipating any such delicacy on the part of a pursuer, turns tail, and is very soon in the rear of th

wind does little to ventilate it from the steam of the rummaging inquisitive pack. Though but a cub, he is the son of an old stager,

go. I'd better cut my stick as I did the time before, and have fresh air and exercise at all events, in the open:" so saying he made a dash at the hedge near w

d by a rough bare fallow, takes the remaining strength out of poor pug; and, turning short to the left, he seeks the friendless shelter of a patch of wretched oats. The hounds overrun the scent, but, spreading like a rocket, they quickly recover it; and in an instant, fox, hounds, horses, men, are among the standing corn,-one ring in final destruction of the beggarly crop, and poor pug is in the hands of his pursuers. Then came the grand finale, the who hoop! the baying, the blowing, the beheading, &c. Now Harry Swan, whose province it is to magnify sport and make imaginary runs to

d eat 'im!"

eat 'im!" shou

d eat 'im!"

o tantalize the young hounds with a haunch, whic

inal

with their anger; and Marmion lets Warrior run off with his

the watchful hounds give a bay of obedient delight as they frolic under their noses; and Swan having reclaimed his horse

er was a better pack. Mainchance's! pooh! Not to be mentioned in the same century. So they proceed, magnifying and complimenting themselves in the

the hounds along the banks, not being aware that Peter Hitter, Squire Porker's keeper, had just emerged at the east end as they came up at the west. However, that was neither here nor there, Dicky got his Y-o-o-icks, his lordship got his view, Swan and Speed their cracks and canters, and it was all in the day's wor

as old Ringwood, who, as usual, was trotting consequentially in advance of the pack, with the fox's head in his mouth, got to the finger-post, a fair equestrian on a tall blood bay rode leisurely past with downcast eyes in full view of the advancing party. Though her

ightish-green velvet, and green cock-feathered plume, tipped with straw-colour to match the ribbon that now gently fluttered at her fair neck,-her hair, her whip, her gloves, her tout ense

ky?" asked his lordship, as

ky, sawing away at his hat. "That be

his lordship, who had forg

r name-Dedancev, Dedancey,

t surprising present at Christmas, for he went on the principle of giving low wages, and of rewarding zeal and discretion, such as Dicky's, profusely. And though he went and drew Brambleton Wood, he was thinking far more of the fair maid, her pensive, downcast look, her long eyelashes, her light silken hair, her graceful figure, and

go-between to mutter the cabalistic words that constitute an introduction; and though Miss de Glancey did ride so unconcernedly past, it was a sheer piece of acting, as she had

if she didn't want to have anything to say to him. Her downcast look, and utter indifference to that fertile source of introduction, a pack of hounds, had sunk deeper into his tender heart than if she had pulled up to up to admire them collectively, and