is best and earliest friends in the course of the
ensuing summer.

Still time wore on. It was full six months after this intimation, that
on a bright morning in October, John Cobham, with two or three visiters
from Belford, and his granddaughter Phoebe, now a lovely young woman,
were coursing on the Moors. The townspeople had boasted of their
greyhounds, and the old sportsman was in high spirits from having beaten
them out of the field.

"If that's your best dog," quoth John, "why, I'll be bound that our
Snowball would beat him with one of his legs tied up. Talk of running
such a cur as that against Snowball! Why there's Phoebe's pet Venus,
Snowball's great grandam, who was twelve years old last May, and has not
seen a hare these three seasons, shall give him the go-by in the first
hundred yards. Go and fetch Venus, Daniel! It will do her heart good to
see a hare again," added he, answering the looks rather than the words
of his granddaughter, for she had not spoken, "and I'll be bound to say
she'll beat him out of sight He won't come in for a turn."

Upon Venus's arrival, great admiration was expressed at her symmetry and
beauty; the grayness incident to her age having fallen upon her, as it
sometimes does upon black greyhounds, in the form of small white spots,
so that she appeared as if originally what the coursers call "ticked."
She was in excellent condition, and appeared to understand the design
of the meeting as well as any one present, and to be delighted to find
herself once more in the field of fame. Her competitor, a yellow dog
called Smoaker, was let loose, and the whole party awaited in eager
expectation of a hare.

"Soho!" cried John Cobham, and off the dogs sprang; Venus taking the
turn, as he had foretold, running as true as in her first season, doing
all the work, and killing the hare, after a course which, for any part
Smoaker took in it, might as well have been single-handed.

"Look how she's bringing the hare to my grandfather!" exclaimed Phoebe;
"she always brings her game!"

And with the hare in her mouth, carefully poised by the middle of the
back, she was slowly advancing towards her master, when a stranger, well
dressed and well mounted, who had joined the party unperceived during
the course, suddenly called "Venus!"

And Venus started, pricked up her ears as if to listen, and stood stock
still.

"Venus!" again cried the horseman.

And Venus, apparently recognising the voice, walked t