THE DOGS. 179 



The Dog must on no account move from his 

 tracks until such command is given. All the 

 affair is perfectly simple ; but quite inflexible. 

 Any variation in this procedure fills the honest 

 bird dog's mind with the same horror and dis- 

 may experienced by a well-brought-up young 

 man who discovers that he has on shoes of the 

 wrong colour. It isn't done, you know. 



Consider, then, Wayward and Girlie in a coun- 

 try full of game birds. They quarter wide to 

 right, then cross to left, their heads high, their 

 feather tails waving in the most approved good 

 form. When they find birds they draw to their 

 points in the best possible style ; stiffen out 

 and wait. It is now, according to all good ethics, 

 up to the Man. And the Man and his com- 

 panions go right on by, paying absolutely no 

 attention either to the situation or one's own 

 magnificent piece of work ! What is one to con- 

 clude ? That our early training is all wrong ? 

 that we are at one experience to turn apostate 

 to the settled and only correct order of things ? 

 Or that our masters are no gentlemen ? That is 

 a pretty difficult thing, an impossible thing, to 

 conclude of one's own master. But it leaves one 

 in a fearful state mentally ; and one has no idea 

 of what to do 1 



