298 WOLF-HUNTING. 



will be alive with fowl, and Keryfan thinks with me that we 

 should be off at once, while the wind is so favourable." 



" So do I," said I ; and not unmindful of the good old motto, 

 " Carpe diem" in a few seconds I was shaking the dewdrops in a 

 copious shower back into my tub ; and long before Keryfan had 

 finished curling his whiskers, both Shafto and I were hard at the 

 coffee and savoury dishes provided by the " neat-handed " Annette 

 for our morning repast. 



Although, from the old town of Scae'r, the river Elle flows in 

 a southerly direction towards Quimperle and the broad Atlantic, 

 the main tributary of that stream, springing in the Montagnes 

 Noires, and locally called the Scaer brook, trends rather in a 

 westerly course ; and as it meanders for miles amid high banks 

 and lonely woods, and is verdant with aquatic weeds at all 

 seasons of the year, it not only supplies ample food to the fowl 

 that frequent it, but affords them a secluded shelter during the 

 prevalence of cold winds and nipping frost on the adjoining 

 coast Thither, then, for our day's sport we were preparing to 

 proceed with all despatch. But Keryfan was not to be hurried 

 either at his toilet or breakfast-table ; and though I chaffed him 

 with being more like the skid of a coach than either of its 

 fore-wheels, no badinage had the slightest effect either in stirring 

 him into quicker action or (I am bound to add) in ruffling his 

 easy temper. 



" If he has taken an hour to dress, give him time to feed, 

 do," said Shafto, interposing as the host on Keryfan' s behalf; 

 " for however late we may be, the chances are we shall not see 

 a human being nor hear a shot fired for the day, except from 

 our own guns, in that secluded valley." 



"Then," said Keryfan, "under those circumstances it would 

 simply be insane to quit this table in a hurry and go half-fed into 

 such a desolate wilderness ; " and as Annette had just brought in 

 a fresh dish of Cotelettes de chevreuil piping hot, he grasped his 



