“But it does to me,” replied his master. “What think you, Mark?”
The old man divided the hackles with his thumb and finger, and after a careful examination pronounced an opinion coinciding with that of the huntsman.
“I know that the hound is a great favourite with both of ye,” said the Squire, “and with good reasons. But remember, if from any false feeling of kindness we spare one infected, the entire pack may be lost.”
“I wouldn’t do it, sir,” returned Mark. “I wouldn’t do it, sir,” repeated he, “if he was my own child, and I thought him bitten. The intended kindness would be right down cruelty.”
“Still,” added our master, shaking his head, “I entertain great doubt as to the policy of hesitating to take the safer course. However, let him be shut up by himself and watched incessantly; and in the event of the most trifling but certain symptom appearing, wait for no instructions from me, but shoot him.”
I was now taken from the court and subjected to solitary confinement for six weeks; but as Tom Holt explained the cause of poor Gameboy’s malady, from having seen him attacked by the cur, and all the rest being found free from the smallest likelihood of inoculation, I was permitted to join my companions again soon after cub-hunting commenced. During my involuntary retreat, Mark paid me the greatest attention, and, that I might not be low-spirited for want of company, would often sit upon my bench and chat to me, and croon snatches of old ballads to himself. He took me long walks, too, when his work was done, and altogether the time was spent much more agreeably than might be imagined in the gloom of solitude.
Hearty was the welcome upon my re-appearance in the court, and each of my friends expressed his warm delight at seeing me again; although a stranger to our ways and customs might deem the reception somewhat churlish, and of the growling mood. However, we do not ‘use our tongues for the concealment of our thoughts,’ and if devoid of the polish of refined manners, we at least possess an equal proportion of their honesty.