;64 



The American Angler. 



sels, shot pouches all embossed and 

 bedizened, g-un-ease maonifieent with 

 red plush and yellow pinchback. Green 

 individual gazes in with admiration and 

 enters. 



(jreen One — " Morning. Got any 

 fust-rate London guns ? Don't want 

 none of your home-made stuff." 



Counter Juniper — " Of course not, sir; 

 of course not. Shouldn't think of oft'er- 

 ing no such rubbish to a sportsman, sir. 

 Besides, sir, fact we don't keep the 

 article. Muggins & Snob don't deal 

 nowheres but with London, direct with 

 the West End makers. Manton, sir, 

 Purdey, Egg, any preference sir, be- 

 tween them? One sportsman likes one 

 maker, one another. You, sir, I 

 should think, prefer a Manton — king of 

 makers." 



Green One — "Well, yes, if it isn't too 

 costly. The man. Smith, across the 

 way, showed me a New York gun, and 

 don't you think, he'd the face to ask me 

 six and thirty dollars for it." 



Counter Jumper — " Just like him, sir. 

 Just like all of them makers, as they 

 call themselves, awfully conceited 

 chaps, cracking up their own work half 

 the time, and the other half palming 

 off all sorts of Brummagen trash for 

 London work." 



Green One — " Gad ! you hit him now, 

 I swar! Didn't he tell me, not half an 

 hour since, that a gun I saw there, 

 with Manton, London, on the barrel, 

 was a Brummagen. I went off, right 

 straight, now, I telljw/." 



Counter Jumper — (laughing in his 

 sleeves). " Law, you were too much of 

 a sportsman to be taken in so, or else 

 he'd never have let on. Now, here's a 

 piece, as you'll see at a glance, is 

 genuine ; a Manton, too, and a prime 

 one. 



Green One — (delighted), " Aint it. 



now I handsome, aint it? Shoots well, 

 too, I reckon? " 



Counter Jumper — "Weill nothing- 

 like it in the country. Why, it was 

 only Wednesday last. Mr. Porter, of the 

 Spirit, — you know Mr. Porter, of the 

 Spirit, sir? No! Well, I <•?';// surprised, 

 and you such a sportsman; but as I 

 was saying, he bought just the mate 

 gun to this, and he hasn't shot, he says 

 with no such a gun before, since he won 

 his great match, at Hoboken, against 

 Captain Martincott, of the army." 



Green One — (amazed), "I swar I and 

 it's a Manton, ginoyine and no mistake. " 



Counter Jumper — " No mistake at all. 

 Muggins & Snob warrants it that ; and 

 if they didn't, Muggins & Snob's name 

 is warrantee enough." 



Green One (enraptured), purchases 

 the ginoyine at sixteen dollars and a 

 half, a handsome reduction from 

 eighteen dollars on the part of Muggins 

 & Snob, in consequence of the well- 

 known sportsmanship of ' ' the verdant ;" 

 invests three and a half more in the 

 plush and pinchback case, and a matter 

 of five more in powder-horn, shot- 

 pouch, German game-sack, all betassled 

 and befringed, and then returns home 

 to Scrabbleborough, or whencesoever 

 else he came, triumphant and elate — 

 magnificent in his conscious superiority 

 to Squire Biddle and his Lancaster. 



A week after, and how changed the 

 scene I 



Scene. — A maple svvamp near Scrab- 

 bleborough. Time — Sunrise on the 

 fifth of July. Dramatis personae. — 

 Squire Biddle, with his Lancaster; 

 Squire Verdant, with his Manton ; two 

 half-bred setters. Squire Verdant 

 loads, nervously, having missed two 

 fair shots. Puts in mistake half a 

 charge of powder, four fingers of shot, 

 and wads with toxv. 



