"I reckon if they run the meadows, you'll hardly ride them, Forester,"
he grinned; "but now away with you. You see the tall dark pin oak, it
hasn't lost one leaf yet; right in the nook there of the bars you'll
find a quiet shady spot, where you can see clear up the rail fence to
this knob, where I'll be. Off with you, boy--and mind you now, you keep
as dumb as the old woman when her husband cut her tongue out, 'cause she
had too much jaw."
Finishing his discourse, he squatted himself down on the stool of a
large hemlock, which, being recently cut down, cumbered the woodside
with its giant stem, and secured him, with its evergreen top now lowly
laid and withering, from the most narrow scrutiny; while I, giving the
gallant horse his head, went at a brisk hand-gallop across the firm
short turf of the fair sloping hill-side, taking a moderate fence in my
stroke, which Peacock cleared in a style that satisfied me Harry had by
no means exaggerated his capacity to act as hunter, in lieu of the less
glorious occupation, to which in general he was doomed.
In half a minute more I reached my post, and though an hour passed
before I heard the slightest sound betokening the chase, never did I
more thoroughly enjoy an hour.
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