g in a crevice above where
they were standing. He climbed up to it and seeing another, and
another, clearly defined the path the hare had taken.

"Tally ho! tally ho!" he shouted.

"Tally ho! tally ho!" cried the huntsman, and sounded his horn.

In an instant, like shipwrecked sailors escaping from a wreck, all the
boys were scrambling along the face of the cliff. Then they began to
drop down, one after the other, fearless of broken limbs, and very soon
they were assembled in the valley below. Once more they burst away in
full cry. Across many a marsh they had to wade, and over many a stream
to jump, into which more than one tumbled, and had to be hauled out by
the rest. Indeed, had not Tom kept them up to their work, several of
the hounds would have given up and turned back. Then Lemon cheered them
on with his horn, and waved before them his flag, and, shouting
together, they surmounted all difficulties, and seldom for more than a
minute at a time lost the scent, till they came to the passage of the
river. Here for a few minutes they were fairly puzzled. They got into
the island, but how to get out again they could not tell. Round and
round it they ran, till the scent was discovered by Lemon on the stem of
the old willow.

"Tally ho! tally ho!" he shouted, springing along the leaning stem, and
disappearing among the branches.

Tom whipped in the hounds, wondering what had become of their leader,
till he was seen on the grass on the opposite bank, having come down,
not having discovered the rope, rather more rapidly than he intended.
Some had already descended in the same rapid way, coming down on
all-fours, or with all-fours upwards, and there lay on the soft grass,
kicking and sprawling in delightful confusion, before the rope was
discovered. The rest got down by the rope, followed by the whipper-in,
and then they all picked themselves up, and set off at full speed after
the hare. I need not follow them. Continually this indefatigable
whipper-in had to keep them up to their work, and very often had to help
out those who had tumbled into ditches and trenches, or stuck fast in
hedges.

"Well, I do declare we never have had such a run since I came to
school," cried Tom, enthusiastically. "Bracebridge deserves a cup, that
he does."

The sentiment was echoed by all hands, from Lemon downwards.

"Now, let us see if we can catch him before he reaches home."

Vain was the notion. The active hares kept