“Then never express such a foolish one for the future,” rejoined Trimbush. “If it came from the foot, how could we carry a good head in a body, and each have a fair share of the scent? We should have to run and follow each other in a string, and one or two might do the work, after drawing, as well as twenty or five-and-twenty couples. Again, if it came from the foot, how could we carry it through water? I say, and ought to know something about the matter,” continued the old hound, emphatically, “that the scent proceeds from the entire animal. The back, belly, head, foot, brush, and—and—and—exactly so, and every part else.”
Old Mark was now heard approaching, which at once put a stop to the discussion; and as soon as the good old man saw that I was lame he examined my feet and washed them with something which he took from a bottle hung by a piece of string to the button-hole of his frock. A few others he served in the same way; and calling us each by name, let us into another court, saying, “You puppies shall feed by yourselves this morning; you all want a little nursing, I find.”
Will Sykes entered soon afterwards, and, seeing Mark’s arrangement for our comfort, observed, “That’s right; those puppies want taking care of.”
“Ay,” replied Mark, smoothing down my sleek ears and patting my sides, “I hear some of ’em deserve it.”
“That Ringwood,” rejoined the huntsman, “is more like a third-seasoned hound than a puppy at the beginning of his first.”
Old Mark’s eyes glistened again at this; and looking at me for a few seconds as I lashed my stern to and fro and stared him full in the face, to let him understand I knew all that was being said of me, he muttered, “If a draft of hounds ever goes to heaven, you’ll be one of ’em, my lad.”
All this praise tended to make me a little vainer than I otherwise should have been, perhaps; but at the same time it fixed my resolution to merit as much as I could of it. And I have often thought since, that there is nothing like encouragement to the young and inexperienced. The difficulties of attaining anything worth learning are always great, and using harsh and severe means on the part of the teachers only makes the attempt more painful and repulsive. Punishment is, occasionally, indispensable for obstinacy or repeated offences; but there is nothing like a cheer for improvement.
After breakfast, and when we were all assembled in the court, the subject of scent was again renewed by Levity observing, in a confidential whisper to me, but which was overheard by Trimbush, “that she very much questioned the correctness of the old hound’s opinion concerning it.”
“You question?” snarled Trimbush. “We shall certainly hear,” continued he, “of mewling, puking babes teaching their grandmothers to suck eggs, by and bye.”
Levity looked abashed at this satirical remark, and, burying her nose between her fore feet, appeared resolved to give herself to silence bordering on the sulky.