hopple-but 'twas no use, and I was going to give up the hunt, when I seed ahead a partridge, just beyond a stump, a pluming himself in the old dry ravine that takes across the road-whereat says I, Boss, says I, do you see that bird? and I'll be hanged if the dog didn't come to a pint. At this I lied down, and cropt along, sometimes flat and sometimes on my knees, but along I crept, Boss all the while lying low; by-and-by I cum up to the partridge, and if it wasn't after all a piece of red bark I'm blowed! Whereupon I brushed the smashed grass and mud off my knees and elbers, and says I, Boss—'

"The pressure had now become fearful, and there was a spontaneous movement among the crowd, some members of it going so far as to cough and scrape their feet, when the judge, evidently desirous to facilitate proceedings, very courteously leaned forward and begged that the witness would be allowed to tell his story in his own way. Brimlon hereat quietly turned toward the bench, and clearing his voice said: "It was a beautiful evening-'

"At the repetition of this statement the judge fell back exhausted, and putting on a severe expression, delivered himself thus:

"Gentlemen, I beg that you will not interrupt the witness; I ask this as a personal favor. The witness will please go on.' At this hint Brimlon smiled benignly, as if he were conferring a great favor on the bench, the lawyers, and the spectators, and then with a voice sweeter and slower than ever, and amidst a stillness that was to the last degree painful, he proceeded:

energetically invited down from the stand by a dozen voices; and to this day it is a marvel among all who heard his testimony how he necessarily connected the beautiful evening, the partridge hunt, and the fact that he heard Parker acknowledge that he owed Glass money on an open account."

The end of the "testimony" having been finally reached, the listeners felt the same relief that was enjoyed by the original hearers; for ther was at the conclusion of it a simultaneous movement toward the horses, and a few moments only were now required to turn our faces homeward. After but little riding we came suddenly upon the highway, which pursuing, one volunteer hunter after another left, until our party was narrowed down to our host and his especial guests. Winding pleasantly along, we were joined by a young lady companion who had spent the afternoon at a neighboring plantation, and there awaited her escort. For her sake a brisk gait was adopted, and to reach the end of our journey in the least possible time we took a cut across the fields, a negro riding ahead to "let down the fences or bars," as our route required. Coming to a gate, our host opened and held it to let the party through, the rolling ride of the fox-hunt being now dispensed with. Advantage was taken of this circumstance by the gentlemen, but our fair lady companion gallantly leaped the fence, and landing among the astonished crowd, with a ringing laugh started off at a brisk gallop, at which pace we soon reached our place of destination.

"It was a beautiful evening-I shall never forget that evening. The sun was setting in the west, where there was a very curious cloud, funnel-shaped, with a large head to it, and then sort o' coming down to a lettle eend it was, in fact, a rail beautiful evening, and I thought I mought as well go a huntin', so says I, "Boss"—you know The red fox is supposed to have been importBoss; he is a short-tailed dog with crop ears, and as good ed from England to the eastern shore of Marya dog as any in the country-so having called up Boss, and found he was all right, I got down my gun (it's about land, and to have emigrated across the ice to thirty inches in the bar'l), and thought I'd ile the locks, Virginia in the severe winter of 1779-80, a though they work like hair-tiggers; so I iled the locks which time the Chesapeake was frozen over. In and started for the stubble-field, owned by old Squire Tod- 1789 the first red fox we have any record of in man-the one he was going to build the gin-house on, but the locality was killed in Pennsylvania. A few didn't-well, after walking 'bout a while, with Boss jest a little ahead, his ears forward, and his tail (what's left of years previous to this, one of the colonial governit) a waggin', what should I do but tumble over by catch-ors of New York had imported some red foxes ing my foot in some long grass, which acted like a shin hopple-but 'twas no use, and I was going to give up the hunt, when I seed ahead a partridge, just beyond a stump, a pluming himself in the old dry ravine that takes across the road-whereat says I, Boss, says I, do you see that bird? and I'll be hanged if the dog didn't come to a pint. At this I lied down, and cropt along, sometimes flat and sometimes on my knees, but along I crept, Boss all the while lying low; by-and-by I cum up to the partridge, and if it wasn't after all a piece of red bark I'm blowed! Whereupon I brushed the smashed grass and mud off my knees and elbers, and says I, Boss, if we ain't a passel of larned fools, then your tail's a yard long, if it ain't Longer; whereat, I got out of the field in double quick time, and clomb over into the road, and met Parker (turn ing toward the defendant), who said to me, says he, "What, Brimlon, you out hunting?" And I said, "Not much"-so Parker and I walked up the road, and he said he jest seen Glass, who threatened to sue him for his bill of twenty dollars; that while he didn't deny owing the bill, he didn't

like to be sued.'

from England, which were turned loose on Long Island: it is supposed that the same cold weather that froze over the Chesapeake united Long Island to the main land, and thus enabled the red fox to escape its original locality. The fact, however, is that the fox is a very good swimmer, at least along the shores, as is shown in their “duck hunts," and it is possible that they do not need a bridge of ice to make way from one distant place to another, even if rivers intervene. Very good observers believe that the red fox is a native of the soil; but this does not seem justifiable from the fact that he is only found in districts of country long settled by man. As he works his way southward, driving before him the gray fox, he is never found in the pine-barrens or the solitary wilderness; but in the settled portions of the country, where thickets, brier patches, and old sedge fields are common, which are only to be found where the farmer pursues his calling, the red fox is comparatively abundant.

"The truth was out at last, and the painfully excited crowd fairly shouted with delight-the lawyers at the same time rubbed their hands, and the judge heaved a deep sigh, as if he were suddenly relieved of a fearful responsibility. In reviewing the history of the red and gray the general confusion that followed Brimlon was fox throughout the entire country, it would seen

In

that they vary in strength and sagacity in different sections. In Florida the gray fox is thought to be almost worthless for the chase; farther north the same species are very game, and afford most excellent amusement. It is also evident that the red fox of Georgia is a superior animal to his representatives in the Northern States. It is very evident from these facts that the creature is somewhat dependent upon localities for his true development.

incidents illustrative of the sagacity of Reynard; a few, taken indiscriminately from the mass, must suffice. A famous fox-hunting region was once thrown into a great state of excitement from the following cause: There was a certain old field of great extent, near the middle of which one could almost any morning start a gray fox. After a chase of an hour or so, just enough to "blow" well the dogs and horses, they would invariably lose the fox at a given spot, near the fence corner of a large plantation, which opened into the heavy forest which partially surrounded this old field. The frequency and certainty of this event happening became well known in the vicinity. Finally, fox-hunters from distant neighborhoods would bring their well-trained packs to have a run after this mysterious animal, in the hope of finding an explanation to the mystery. strange as it appeared, all were baffled alike. The interest now became intense, and numbers of experienced hunters made personal and critical examination of the vicinity, but found nothing to justify, or in any way suggest, an explanation. That the fox always escaped at a well-known place, where every thing was in open view, was certain; and that it must have been in some way along the fence, seemed the only possible solution. To test the theory, a large pack was made to follow round the entire inclosure of the fence, A volume might be filled with anecdotes and but without striking the trail.

How long a fox will run, or the exact speed he will attain to, are questions not easily answered. A red fox in Virginia was started, and by putting fresh packs of hounds on his track, was run over fifty miles, and is then supposed to have escaped. At Muirsham, England, a fox was unkenneled at half past eight o'clock in the morning, and was hard pressed until three o'clock in the afternoon, in which time he ran over sixty miles. The horses in the run finally gave out, and the hunters followed to the death on foot. In February, 1849, a very old fox ran from Stovill's Hill, England, to Dorking Glory, a measured distance of forty-five miles, in less than five hours. It has been asserted, and is believed by experienced hunters, that a pack of superior hounds, led by a fox, have, in the excitement, at times run a mile in sixty seconds, surpassing the best speed of the horse.

But,

The affair now reached a climax of excite- deliberately passed a piece of lighted paper under ment. The reputation of the hunters began to the fox's nose; but the animal remained as insuffer, and the hounds themselves finally showed sensible as a log, and was by universal consent that their confidence was giving way, for they pronounced very dead, much to the mystification would not run with the stanch eagerness that of the person who could not resist the idea that formerly characterized them. The fact of their he had seen the fox rise on his fore-legs and look being so often baffled had created the idea that about the room. The next morning, however. they would never shake poor Reynard again; the animal, bating a slight wound and a soiled while many persons grew superstitious that he coat, was found in good health-his power of was a wizard, who could become invisible when deception proving powerful enough to suppress he pleased. the pain of twenty ordinary deaths.

On one occasion a fox, surprised in a henhouse, simulated death with such exactness that the owner of the slaughtered poultry thought the thief had died from a surfeit, and after kicking the stiffened body rudely about the floor, picked it up by the tail and threw it on the dunghill: a moment afterward master fox gathered up his legs and made good his escape.

A fox had been pursued near Edgefield, South Carolina, but the hounds lost all trace of him invariably upon the side of a hill. A gentleman. determined to solve the mystery, found that the fox after starting would lead the pack a pretty smart race in the neighborhood, get them warm and excited, and would then run to the top of the hill; descending slowly until he reached midway, when he would lie down; meantime the dogs, flushed and eager, would have their natural speed accelerated by the descending grade, and they would almost literally run over as well as past the object of their pursuit, never perceiving that they had lost the trail until they precipitated themselves into the valley below. this happened the fox would rouse himself, cast a furtive glance behind, to be sure of the position of his enemies, and run away in an opposite di

As soon as

At last an enthusiastic hunter, who had great faith in the tangibility of the fox, and was also a believer in natural laws, determined that he would anticipate the arrival of the fox at the fence corner, and see how he managed to escape. Accordingly, when, on the next hunt, he was satisfied the animal was heading for the indicated spot, the hunter reached it by a short cut and posted himself a sentinel. Presently the fox came leisurely along a little in advance of the pack. When he reached the corner the hunter, in almost breathless excitement, noticed the creature deliberately make his way to the top of the fence, and then, as if confident of his safety, walk along, daintily balancing himself with the airs of a tight-rope dancer. On he went until he reached the forest trees in which the hunter was concealed. The fox now became cautious, cast a look behind, and saw that the pack was almost within death-dealing distance. No time was to be lost. Running forward so as to obtain momentum, he came opposite a dead and leaning tree, which stood isolated and inside of the field, within sixteen feet of the fence. This unguarded and prominent object he reached by a bound, confirming his hold by striking his fore-paws beyond a protruding knot; the next instant he as-rection with the greatest speed. cended to the top, some thirty feet from the Just after daylight a gentleman once observed ground, and disappeared. The hunter's admi-a fox walking very stealthily along the borders ration for the intelligence of the animal made of a farm; he looked very anxiously over the him keep the secret, and for a long time he en- wall into the field, and seemed to long very much joyed his neighbors' speculations and theories, to get hold of one of the hares feeding in it. until another hunter suspected the real cause, which he knew he could not catch by running. found out the secret, and avenged his frequent After reflecting a short time he seemed to form disappointments by cutting down the tree and his plans. He first examined the different gaps capturing the smart fox. The hiding-place had in the wall, fixed upon one that seemed to be often been noticed, but to leap the distance it the most frequented, and then laid down as a stood from the fence was never thought to be cat would at a mouse-hole. He then, with great possible; but practice, the favorable angle of the care and silence, scraped a small hollow in the trunk, the position of the knot to assist the foot- ground, throwing up a barricade as a kind of hold, formed a combination of favorable circum- screen, meantime, however, keeping up a most stances that enabled the cunning creature to cautious examination of the adjoining field. overcome what appeared at first sight to be a When all this was accomplished he laid himphysical impossibility. self down in a convenient posture for springing on his prey. When the sun was fairly up the hares began to pass out of the field, but not with

A number of half-grown boys, assisted by a dog, unearthed a fox and apparently killed it. The body was carried home, and thrown care-in reach from his ambush. Presently two came lessly in a corner of the room while the party partook of supper. Reynard, seeing his enemies busily engaged, ventured to reconnoitre, and for this purpose cautiously raised himself on his fore-legs; but deeming it unsafe to do more, resumed his quiescent state. One of the party, who witnessed the movement, but unwilling, under the circumstances, to believe his own eyes, very

directly toward him; he did not look up; the involuntary motion of his ears showed, however. that he knew of their approach. The hares came through the gap together; with the quickness of lightning he caught one and killed it; but unhappily for his length of days, the observ ant hunter now fired his gun, and fox and hare lay dead beside each other.

A young man, tall, straight, and lithe. His arms lightly folded across his chest; his handsome head, covered only with close-curling chestnut hair, proudly uplifted to the starry sky; his eyes, bright and keen, fixed upon the sleeping sea; one foot advanced toward the shallow slid-word now and then, or a little extra money? ing waves, as if he said, "Thus far!"

"Every thin'! Well, now, Saul, I think we're pooty tol'ably comf'able. We get good And now let us listen to their talk beneath hire fer the boat, and I ken sell all the fish I the starlight.

"They're civil to me, so am I to them. They down the beach. VOL. XXIII.-No. 138.-3 C

When he returned he seemed in a calmer mood, and bound for York. and said, pleasantly,

"Well, father, 'most time to turn in if you're going out on the morning tide, isn't it?"

"Yes, yes, I know, Saul; but there's somethin' I want to talk about while I ken. Somehows I feel a kind o' down-hearted to-night, like as I wasn't a goin' to live long."

"What is it, father; what ails you? You hadn't ought to work so hard. Stay at home to-morrow, and let me go out for the fish. I shall be back time enough to take the party out sailing."

"No, no, boy, it ain't that. I'm hearty enough, as fur as that goes, an' able to do my day's work with any man, leastways of my age. But somehow I feel by turns as if sunthin' was a goin' to happen."

"Something's always happening, father," said Saul, cheerily. "But I don't believe any thing bad's going to happen to you. Why should you think so?"

"Well, I can't rightly say, Saul, my boy, but I do think so; and-there ain't no use o' beatin' up to wind'ard any longer—I'll just 'bout ship and run afore the wind. I've got sunthin' on my mind as I wants to git off." "Something on your mind, father?" "Yes, boy. Sunthin' about you, too." "About me! What can there be to say of me that should lie heavy on your mind?"

"Well, boy, I donno whether it'll be good news or bad to you-sometimes I reckon one, sometimes t'other; but the fact is, you ain't my son noways."

She struck on a reef some

ways out from shore, and in half an hour she went all to pieces, and arter that most every wave washed up a spar or a timber, or a box or a cask, or the drownded corpse of a fellercreeter.

"There wa'n't but little that could 'a ben done to help 'em, and that little wa'n't done. What few folks was round seemed to think more o' helpin' theirselves to what was washed ashore than helpin' them poor sailors to get back the breath o' life, s'posin' it could 'a ben done.

"Well, I staid round on the shore all night, an' when it come mornin' I felt so kind o' sick and put out with what I'd seed, that I jest shouldered my bundle an' sot off on my tramp. I couldn't somehow stomach to eat another meal o' vittles in the place. I felt as if the cuss o' God would light on it right away, an' I'd best be out of it. So I went my ways, and hed got mayhap a mile out'n the place, when, as I was coastin' along the land side of a big black rock, I heerd sunthin' like a groan, an' then the v'ice of a leetle child a cryin'.

"Well, at that I hove to, an' begun to reconn'itre a bit. "Twa'n't long 'fore I diskivered a poor creeter stowed away under the lee of the rocks, where he'd crawled out'n the surf, though he couldn't get no further.

"He was a dark-complected, middle-aged man, and I know'd by his white hands, and his ring, and his fine clothes, that he was a gen'leman, though I couldn't make out a word he said, nor he didn't seem to make no hand o' my jaw. He had a babby-leastways you was about two

"What! you mean that my mother was year old, I should say—' false ?"

"I donno nothin' 'bout your mother, nor your father nuther. Leastways I'll tell you all I do know. But the fust thing is, you ain't no child of mine nor my woman's."

"Whose then?" asked Saul, breathlessly. "Hold on, lad, and I'll tell 'ee all I know. It were-lemme see, it were three-an'-twenty year ago come next March, and I were faring home afoot from York, where I'd landed after a v'y'ge I'd made down South in a lumber craft. It was 'bout thirty mile above this that I foun' myself obleeged to lay by a day 'count of the most tremenjous gale of wind and rain that had been seed in them parts fer many a day. It lasted three days, and the fust two I did manage to beat up somehow; but the third was the beat of all the wind that ever I see, and I wa'n't ashamed to lay to under it in a little fishing hamlet-Clam Cove I b'lieve they called it over one day and night. That night there was two wracks, one a little above, an' one a little below the town, an' every thin' that had legs in them dozen houses was out looking at one or t'other of 'em.

"As fer the one to the nor'ard I donno nothing 'bout it, what sort of craft she were, nor where she hailed from, nor whether any one was saved; but the one to the s'uth'ard was a middlin'-sized brig, hailin' from the West Injies,

"Then it was me!" exclaimed Saul.

"Yes, it wor you, and the gen'leman wor your daddy, as I've alluz consaited, fer he seemed mortal fond of you, an' kep'a hugging an' a kissing of you over and over agin; an' then he'd jabber away in his furrin way, an' look at me, an' hold you up toward me well's he could, fer the poor creeter 'd got a mortal hurt on them rocks, an' was a dyin' by inches, as it wor, all the time he talked."

"Oh-father!" groaned Saul.

"An' then he'd h'ist up well's he could, an' look up an' down an' fur an' near, an' then he'd hail some one by the name of Oliver agin an' agin, till he'd lop back agin the rocks with the blood a runnin' out'n his mouth, an' his face all kivered with sweat, though the wind was pipin' up from the nor'ard as cold as Greenland.

"But Oliver didn't answer to the hail. I expect the poor feller 'd gone to Davy Jones afore; an' who he wor, and what the furriner wanted on him, I couldn't make out then nor now. On'y, arter he'd sung out the last time, an' 'fore his stren'th was a leavin' of him, he looked up to me so earnest like, it seemed 's if there wa'n't no need o' words to say what he meant, an' he pinted to you, an' then he pinted up an' down the beach, an' says, very solemn,

"Oliver, Oliver!' An' by that I know'd he meant that ef so be as I could overhaul this