.550 THE LOVE-CHILD. 



let fly, and hit the cock bird on the side of the head. He fell, and 

 began to tumble about the furrows, flapping prodigiously, but not so 

 as to alarm his companions ; they were not aware of what I had done : 

 while two of them gazed with curiosity at the phenomenon, the third 

 bristled up and began to peck and spur at him most furiously. The 

 moment I saw the success of my silent artillery, I went forward as 

 speedily as my cumbrous habiliments would permit, to make sure of 

 my spoil ; but scarcely had I advanced a couple of yards when my 

 career was arrested by a loud shout. The hen pheasants ran off into 

 the preserve at the sound, and I, turning to that corner of the field 

 from which it had proceeded, perceived Farmer Belroy advancing 

 towards me with hasty strides. Suspecting, from his violent gestures, 

 that I had committed some error, I started off in an opposite direction, 

 but soon tumbled headlong. The next moment I felt myself in the 

 clutch of my colossal enemy, and commenced a series of desperate 

 manoeuvres, the aim and intent of which was to writhe myself out of 

 his grandfather's clothes. In this I should most probably have suc- 

 ceeded, had he not caught me up in a lump and hugged me to his 

 breast, so that, my arms being pinioned, I was comparatively power- 

 less. I say comparatively, for my legs being still at liberty, I 

 drummed away upon his stomach with all my might, and fastening 

 my teeth in his cheek, did all in my power to make them meet. 



The farmer, however, almost instantly choked me off, and then 

 holding me at arm's length, by the scruff of the neck, as the huntsman 

 does a fox which he has rescued from his pack, he thus apostrophized 

 me : " Why thee'rt a stoat, lad, a downright imp of Belzebub ! listen 

 to sense ! I'd no thought of harming thee ! Doant thee wriggle, or 

 I'll tie thee foot to foot, and carry thee home, swung by the ancles 

 athirt my stick, like a paunched rabbit. Listen to sense wilt ? Pro- 

 mise and I'll let thee down promise, and there's an apple for thee 

 look, a red-streak !" 



Half scared to death, I accepted the proffered token of peace, and 

 he placed me on my legs. Observing me stare rather anxiously 

 about, he asked gruffly what I was " glowering at?" I muttered 

 something about the pheasant. " Drat the pheasant," he exclaimed ; 

 " luckily he's got his wits again, and crawled off; if you'd a year's 

 more strength you'd ha 1 killed un, and then the Squire, if he'd heard 

 of it d'ye mind me ? d'ye mind me, I say ? Tellee you mustn't kill 

 'em : only keep 'em off, that's all. I were on the bridge all the time, and 

 as it seems pretty clear a mopstick's nothing when they've scraped 

 acquaintance wi' un, I'll hire you for the place d'ye hear at two- 

 pence a- week ! What d'ye say ?" 



I pulled down my forelock in token of acquiescence, and after he 

 had given me orders to be in the field by day-break, the next 

 morning, and charged me, with great solemnity, not to kill " any of 

 the d d varmin," he went off, leaving me to ruminate on my feli- 

 city. Two-pence a- week was an income far far beyond the utmost 

 limits of my ambition it soared up to the importance of a revenue ! 

 Two-pence a-week was a boundless amount ! I puzzled my small 

 brains to think how the deuce I should contrive to expend it. 



The next morning I was at my post before the night-birds had 



