Mr. Sponge stole away to where the dog had dropped the bird; and Mr. Jog, availing himself of his absence, retraced his steps down the hill, and struck off home at a much faster pace than he came.  Arrived there, he found the dog in the kitchen, somewhat sore from the visitation of the shot, but not sufficiently injured to prevent his enjoying a most liberal plate of stick-jaw pudding supplied by a general contribution of the servants.  Jog’s wrath was then turned in another direction, and he blew up for the waste and extravagance of the act, hinting pretty freely that he knew who it was that had set them against it.  Altogether he was full of troubles, vexations, and annoyances; and after spending another most disagreeable evening with our friend Sponge, went to bed more determined than ever to get rid of him.

CHAPTER LVI

NONSUCH HOUSE AGAIN

Poor Jog again varied his hints the next morning.  After sundry prefatory ‘Murry Anns!’ and ‘Bar-tho-lo-mews!’ he at length got the latter to answer, when, raising his voice so as to fill the whole house, he desired him to go to the stable, and let Mr. Sponge’s man know his master would be (wheezing) away.

‘You’re wrong there, old buck,’ growled Leather, as he heard the foregoing; ’he’s half-way to Sir ‘Arry’s by this time.’

And sure enough, Mr. Sponge was, as none knew better than Leather, who had got him his horse, the hack being indisposed—­that is to say, having been out all night with Mr. Leather on a drinking excursion, Leather having just got home in time to receive the purple-coated, bare-footed runner of Nonsuch House, who dropped in, en passant, to see if there was anything to stow away in his roomy trouser-pockets, and leave word that Sir Harry was going to hunt, and would meet before the house.

Leather, though somewhat muzzy, was sufficiently sober to be able to deliver this message, and acquaint Mr. Sponge with the impossibility of his ‘ridin’ the ‘ack.’  Indeed, he truly said that he had ’been hup with him all night, and at one time thought it was all hover with him,’ the all-overishness consisting of Mr. Leather being nearly all over the hack’s head, in consequence of the animal shying at another drunken man lying across the road.

Mr. Sponge listened to the recital with the indifference of a man who rides hack-horses, and coolly observed that Leather must take on the chestnut, and he would ride the brown to cover.

‘Couldn’t, sir, couldn’t,’ replied Leather, with a shake of the head and a twinkle of his roguish, watery grey eyes.

‘Why not?’ asked Mr. Sponge, who never saw any difficulty.

‘Oh, sur,’ replied Leather, in a tone of despondency, ’it would be quite unpossible.  Consider wot a day the last one was; why, he didn’t get to rest till three the next mornin’.’

‘It’ll only be walking exercise,’ observed Mr. Sponge; ‘do him good.’