“Yes, it’s sore, and it’s getting pretty tight, too, and I’m dreffle sleepy,” said Tommy, falling unconsciously into the trap, and leaning comfortably against Mr. Hugh, who had pulled him on to the saddle before him. But his anxiety had passed, so long as he did not miss the party; a sore throat, in the nice sunny room that had been the nursery and was now set apart for illness, with a big open fire to watch, picture books, mother to sit by and read, or father to make up stories, and a dog or two for company when they went away, was indeed luxury. This, however, was the last delay, and the black frost kindly kept away, leaving the last week in October as beautiful and suitable as heart could desire. Beside the Hilltop and Happy Hall people, who were all intimate friends, Mr. Hugh had invited some of his own and Squire Burley’s men friends, also a handful of the village young people. In addition there was a Miss Varley stopping at the Scotts’. Her brother was a college chum of Pinkie’s big brother, and they were all three invited, as they were fond of sport, and good riders. The Varleys, who came from the south, where they hunt foxes altogether on horseback, suggested to Mr. Hugh that he should put corn-stalk or brush hurdles in some of the gateless gaps in his tumble-down stone fences, and have a drag-hunt over the course to break in the young hounds, who all told numbered a pack of twenty. Squire Burley was one of the few Hillside folk who owned a hunter, because in this section all the fox-hunting was a necessity, done in earnest, and afoot, with a swift death by bullet for the hen-roost robbers. The Squire opened his land for the drag-hunt, likewise Miss Jule and several small farmers, for all the crops were in but the stacks of corn stalks. A drag-hunt, as Anne explained to Miss Letty, “is when you put seeds that smell like a fox in a bag and drag it round early in the morning when the dew is heavy and holds the scent down. Then the dogs think it is a fox trail, and run like anything, and never find that there isn’t any fox until it’s too late to back out, and before the next time they forget all about how they were cheated.” “You will be the only woman to follow,” Mr. Hugh had said to Miss Varley, when the arrangements were completed. “Only two or three of our girls ride, and they never take fences, though Diana here is beginning to train for a huntress.”