, tail, and neck all develop and strengthen greatly
during this period, under such favourable conditions as Finn
enjoyed. But he was a noble-looking young hound, even on this day
which, technically, saw the end of his whelphood.

And then came three more months of Sussex downland summer, the
hunting of innumerable rabbits, out-of-door days which were fifteen
hours long, and a steadily increasing amount of slow-road exercise,
for which Finn was still fortified by three good meals a day, and
those of the best that care and science could devise. In early
October the Master devised a new game, tolerably amusing in its
way, but rather lacking in point and excitement, Finn thought. A
ring was marked out in the orchard by means of a few faggots being
stuck into the ground at intervals, and in the centre of this ring
the Mistress of the Kennels would take up her stand as a sort of
director of ceremonies. Then, sometimes with the assistance of the
maidservant and the gardener, and sometimes a couple of village
lads, Tara and Kathleen and Finn would be led gravely round and
round, and to and fro, by the Master, while all their movements
were closely watched from the centre of the ring. At first Finn
found this a good deal of a nuisance, because he disliked having a
lead attached to his collar; his inclination was to pull against it
sideways. Before him always, however, he had the gracious example
of his beautiful mother, who never did more than keep the lead
nicely tight while she marched round, with her head well up, her
tail hanging in a graceful sweeping curve, and her whole body
radiantly expressive of alertness. Gradually it was borne in upon
Finn that these were matters which touched his reputation, his
pride, his belief in himself; that he, Finn, was being observed and
judged with regard to his appearance and deportment. Once possessed
of this idea, who so stately proud in all the Wolfhound world as
Finn? At the end of a week he could march as sedately as Tara
herself, or bound forward with the springy elasticity of a tiger-cat
at a touch on his flank from the Master's hand; stand erect on
his hind-feet, with one fore-paw on the Master's forefinger raised
shoulder high; or fall to attention with hind-quarters well set
out, fore-feet even and forward, head up, and tail correctly
curved, in the position of a thoroughbred hackney at rest. It was
great fun to find how easily commendation could be earned from the
Master in th