und a lot of friends, and was as jolly
as he could be: the hounds found a'most as soon as they threw off, and
there was great excitement. So, forgetting that he had 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 Copse; 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!"

'"Ay, 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 Yalbury 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 along, 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, and 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.

'"Ha, ha!" says the pa'son, a-glancing back into the clerk's. "Halloo!"
he shouts, as he sees the fox break cover at that moment.

'"Halloo!" cries the clerk. "There he goes! Why, dammy, there's two
foxes--"

'"Hush, clerk, hush! Don't let me hear that word again! Remember our
calling."

'"True, sir, true. But really, good sport do carry away a man so, that
he's apt to forget his high persuasion!" And the next minute the corner
of the clerk's eye shot again into the corner of the pa'son's, and the
pa'son's back again to the clerk's. "Hee, hee!" said the clerk.

'"Ha, ha!" said Pa'son Toogood.

'"Ah, sir," says the clerk again, "this is better than crying Amen to
your Ever-and-ever on a winter's morning!"

'"Yes, indeed, clerk! To everything there's a season," says Pa'son
Toogood, quite pat, for he was a learned Christian man when he liked, and
had chapter and ve'se at his tongue's end, as a pa'