The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1902-12-09

drift became apparent, and l realized that
I was accused OF improving my shooting
and my finances by the simple expedient
of selling my foxes. That is TO say, l
was in a worse position than Il / had
stolen a horse or murdered Mrs. Cado-
gan, or got drunk three times a week IN
SkebaWn.
For a few moments I fell into wild
laughter. and then, aware that it was
rather a bad business to let a lie of this
kind get a start, I sat down to demolish
the preposterous charge in a letter to
FURRY Knox. Somehow, as l selected
nv sentences, it was borne in upon me
that, if the letter spoke the truth, cir
c~umstantial evidence was rather against
me. Mere lofty reputation would he
unavailing, and by my Internal facetious-
ness about the woodeock l had effectively
filed in the case against myself. AT all
events, the first thing to do was to have
it out with Tim Conner 1 rang the bell.
peter, is Tim Conner about the
placer
He is not, sir. l heard him say he
was going west the hill to mend the
bounds fence Peters face was covered
with SCOT, his eyes were red, and he
coughed ostentatiously The sweeps
after breaking one of his brushes within
yer DouIOOIn CullIluey, oI hS "Sh' 49,
hes above on the roof now. and he'd
be thankful to you to go up to him.
1 followed him upstairs, climbed the
rickety ladder, and squeezed through tie
dirty trapdoor to the roof, and was con-
fronted by the hideous face of the sweep,
black against the frosty blue sky. lie
had encamped with all his paraphernalia
on the fat top Of the roof, and was good
enough to rise and put his pipe in his
pocket on my arrival.
Good morning, Major. That's a grand
view you have up here said the sweep.
He was evidently too we'll bred to talk
shop. Z thraveled every roof in this
country, and there isn't one where you'd
get as handsome a prospect
Theoretically he was right, but l had
not come up to the roof to discuss seen
cry, and demanded b~rutally why he had
sent for me. The explanation involved a
recital of the special genius required to
sweep the Shreelane chimneys; Of the
fact that the sweep had in infancy been
sent up and down every one of them by
Great Uncle Mccarthy, of the three ass
loads Of SCOT that by his peculiar skill
he had this morning taken from the
kitchen chimney; of its present purity.
the draught being such that it would
Jill DIV up Il yOuuS q Will IL IL
ally-realizing that l could endure no
more-he explained that my bedroom
chimney had got what he called "a
wynd" in it, and he proposed to climb
down a little way in the stack to try
would he get to come at the brush"
The sweep was very small, the chimney
very large. l stipulated that he should
nave a rope round his waist, and despite
the illegality, l let him go. He went
down like a monkey, digging his toes
and fingers into the inches made for the
purpose in the old chimney; Peter held
the rope, l lit a cigarette and waited.
Certainly the view from the roof was
worth coming up to look at. l turned to
survey with an owners eye my own gray
woods and struggling plantations of
laTch, and espied a man coming out of
the western wood. He had something
on his back and he was walking very
fast; a rabbit poacher no doubt. AS he
passed out of sight into the back avenue
he was beginning to run. AT the same
instant | say on the hill beyond my
! western boundaries half a dozen horse
men scrambling by zigzag ways down to-
ward the wood. There was one red coat
among them; it came first at the gap
in the fence that Tim Common had gone
out to mend, and with the others was
lost to sight in the covert. from which,
in another instant. came clearly through
the frosty air a shout Of Gone to
groundi' Tremendous horn blowings
followed, then, all in the same Moment,
| saw the hounds break in full cry from
the wood and come stringing over the
grass and up the back avenue toward the
yard gate. Were they running a fresh
fox into the stables?
| am an Irishman, and so, it is perhaps
superf1uous to state, is Peter. We forgot
the sweep, as if he had never existed,
and precipitated ourselves down the lad
der, down the stairs and out into the
yard. One side of the yard is formed
by the coach house and a long stable,
with a range Of lofts above them, plan
ned on the heroic scale in such matters
that obtained in Ireland formerly. These
! join the house at the corner by the back
door. A long flight of stone steps leads
to the lofts and UP these, as Peter and
I emerged from the back door, the
hounds were struggling h~elter-skelter.
Almost simultaneously there was a con-
fused ~clatter of hoofs in the back avenue,
and FURRY Knox came STOPPING at a gall
Top under the archway. followed by three
or four other riders. They flung them
selves fom their horses and made for the
steps of the loft; more hounds pressed,
yelling, on their heels; the din was in
describable.
l jostled in the wake of the party and
found myself in the loft, wading in hay
and nearly deafened by the clamor that
was banded about the high roof and
walls. At the further end Of the loft
the hounds were raging in the hay, en-
couraged thereto by the whoops and
5creeches of FURRY and his friends.
High up in the gable of the loft. where
it Joined the main wall of the house,
there was a small door, and 1 noted,
with a transient surprise, that there was
a long ladder leading up to it. Even as
it caught my eye, a hound fought his
way out of a drift of hay and began to
Jump at the ladder.
There's the way he's gone.' roared
FURRY. 'Trumpeter has him, What's
+. ~ tIaro honk of }ho door - Y