Page:Life's little ironies (1894).pdf/242

he rode off towarda the meet, intending to be back in an hour. No sooner was be gone thau the clerk mounted the cob, and was off after him. When the pa’sou got to the meet, he found a lot of friends, and was so jolly as he could be; the hounds found a’most as soon as they threw off, and there waa great excitement. So, forgetting that he bad meant to go back at once, away rides the pa’son with the rest o’ the hunt, all across the fallow ground that lies between Lippet Wood and Green's Copae; and as he galloped he looked behind for a moment, and there was the clerk close to his heels.

“Ha, ha, clerk—you here ?” he says,

“Yes, sir, here be I,’ says t’other.

“Fine exercise for the horses !”

"'Aye, sir—hee, hee!’ says the clerk.

“So they went on and on, into Green’s Copse, then across to Higher Jirton; then on across this very turnpike road to Climmerston Ridge, then away towards Yailbury Wood; up hill and down dale, like the very wind, the clerk close to the pa’son, and the pa’son not far from the hounds. Never was there a finer run knowed with that pack than they had that day; and neither pa’son nor clerk thought one word about the unmarried couple locked up in the church-tower waiting to get j'ined.

"'These hosses of yours, sir, will be much improved by this,’ says the clerk as he rode slong, just a neck behind the pa’son. ‘*Twas a happy thought of your reverent mind to bring ’em out to-day. Why, it may be frosty in a day or two, aud then the poor things mid not be able to leave the stable for weeks.’

"'They may not, they may not, it is true. A merciful man is merciful to his beast,’ says the pa’son.

"Hee, hee!’ says the clerk, glancing sly into the pa’son’s eye.