[Mr. Sponge’s Sporting Tour by R. S. Surtees]@TWC D-Link bookMr. Sponge’s Sporting Tour CHAPTER XLVII 6/10
'Oh, dear!' exclaimed he, 'you shouldn't have given me that nasty (puff) thing.' 'My dear fellow, I didn't know it would make you sick,' replied Mr.Sponge. 'Well, but (puff) if they (wheeze) other people sick, in all (puff) probability they'll (wheeze) me.
There!' exclaimed he, pulling up again. The delays occasioned by these catastrophes, together with the time lost by 'Obin and Ichard,' threw our sportsmen out considerably.
When they reached Chalkerley Gate it wanted ten minutes to eleven, and they had still three miles to go. 'We shall be late,' observed Sponge inwardly denouncing 'Obin and Ichard.' 'Shouldn't wonder,' replied Jog, adding, with a puff into his frill, 'consequences of making me sick, you see.' 'My dear fellow, if you don't know your own stomach by this time, you did ought to do,' replied Mr.Sponge. 'I (puff) flatter myself I _do_ (wheeze) my own stomach,' replied Jogglebury tartly. They then rumbled on for some time in silence. When they came within sight of Snobston Green, the coast was clear.
Not a red coat, or hunting indication of any sort, was to be seen. 'I told you so (puff)!' growled Jog, blowing full into his frill, and pulling up short. 'They be gone to Hackberry Dean,' said an old man, breaking stones by the roadside. 'Hackberry Dean (puff)--Hackberry Dean (wheeze)!' replied Jog thoughtfully; 'then we must (puff) by Tollarton Mill, and through the (wheeze) village to Stewley ?' 'Y-e-a-z,' drawled the man. Jog then drove on a few paces, and turned up a lane to the left, whose finger-post directed the road 'to Tollarton.' He seemed less disconcerted than Sponge, who kept inwardly anathematizing, not only 'Obin and Ichard,' but 'Diddle, diddle, doubt'-- 'Bah, bah, black sheep'-- the whole tribe of nursery ballads, in short. The fact was, Jog wanted to be into Hackberry Dean, which was full of fine, straight hollies, fit either for gibbeys or whip-sticks, and the hounds being there gave him the entree.
It was for helping himself there, without this excuse, that he had been 'county-courted,' and he did not care to renew his acquaintance with the judge.
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