“And the less the better,” added Will Sykes. “It’s too much like mobbing a fox to please me; but still there are occasions, as in lifting hounds, to justify us in so doing. If the scent be cold and the fox a long way ahead, so that hounds can’t hunt, we must, in order to have any chance, get them nearer to him, and then it is that a whip may get for’ard to the point and head him in.” “But this only applies to a fresh fox, I suppose?” said Ned Adams. “To be sure,” responded his uncle, “unless, indeed, he’s a dying one: for then, as he can show no more sport, the sooner he is killed the better. I’m one of the last men living,” continued the huntsman, emphatically, “to kill a fox by either lifting hounds or any other means, except by a fair find--a fair rattle from scent to view, and pulling him down when he can’t run any farther. But it isn’t every day that we can have such cream of sport; and for any one to say that it’s unjustifiable to lift or assist hounds to run when they can’t hunt, or that we should never hold a fox in covert, is to acknowledge himself to be too tame a hand for a killer of foxes.” “Nobody will accuse you of being that,” rejoined his nephew, laughing, “if they count the noses on the kennel-door at the end of each season.” “I hope not,” returned the huntsman, seriously. “I hope,” continued he, “that when Will Sykes’s tally comes to be reckoned up and squared, those noses will go in the scales with his morals, and make ’em kick the beam.” It has been said that Will Sykes possessed a wide circle of admirers; and therefore to be quite silent upon the matter respecting his nephew, would be an act approaching injustice; for, although the number was more choice, and--to be strictly correct--comprised no old women whatever, yet there is no question but every pretty, young, and unmarried one within the wide range of Ned’s jaunts and wanderings might be fairly registered among them. And no wonder; for Ned was spruce and handsome, and had soft looks, and yet softer words, for those with whom he wished to be in favour. His jest and laugh, too, were free and hearty; and where-ever he went, “Welcome” awaited him.