BREAKING AND HANDLING. 387 



in the abstract should certainly be more meritorious than 

 what your friend's dog did in reality, the fancy more than 

 the fact. 



Be officious and obstinate in arranging the route and its 

 details. Make your companion's route subservient to yours. 

 Suggest to him how he will work his dog. When he sends 

 his dog to retrieve suffer yours to go also ; two dogs do so 

 much better than one. Your friend may wish you under the 

 dominion of the somber personage who presides over the 

 destinies of the adverse orthodox hereafter, but you will 

 have the sublime pleasure of your own will. 



Watch patiently and ceaselessly for an opportunity to kill 

 a bird which your companion misses. When you succeed 

 in "wiping his eye," give full and hilarious play to your 

 pent up feelings of exhilaration. Tell him you wiped his 

 eye. Tell your friends and his friends of it. Within the 

 following weeks refer to the fact that you wiped his eye. 

 In every conversation introduce some topic that will craftily 

 lead up to the opportunity of repeating that you wiped his 

 eye. Thus you will exalt yourself as is your due, give full 

 play to your excusable vanity simultaneously with an amiable 

 exposition of your friend's unskillfulness. The time-honored 

 custom of " wiping his eye " is obsolescent, but there is a 

 worthy class which cherishes it as the sweetest morsel of 

 field sports, and such should be duly revered for their 

 numbers. 



Assume an excessive affectation of modesty when the 

 dog is pointing and your friend invites you to step forward 

 and shoot. He will appreciate it, particularly if the dog has 

 been pointing a long while, or the birds are running. If 

 you do go forward, step closely and gingerly, and act as if 

 you expected to flush a flock of rattlesnakes. It is very 

 interesting to watch the extreme caution observed by some 

 in flushing birds when no caution is necessary or desirable. 



