TttE GABbENER'S DREAM. 5 



lordly stag was startled by thy rifle, a moment sniffed 

 the tainted gale, and then trotted quietly away unhurt, 

 disdainful, as the gillies winking near, and the deer- 

 hound growling at thy side. Thou hast said nothing 

 of other feverish and fretful days, when, owing to ' that 

 confounded old Madeira,' or ' that weed of Green's,' or 

 that fixed determination to take the conceit from out 

 of that bumptious Brown, thou didst 'never shoot so 

 infamously,' and thy gun seemed to be under a 

 fiendish power, and would not bear upon the game. 

 Reserve has padlocked thy sweet lips, my frienJ, and 

 memory lost the key, as regards a certain other wood- 

 cock, which, twice spared by thy mercy, fell stone dead 

 for Brown Brown, the vainglorious Brown, the 

 hateful, who last night flirted with thy lady love, and 

 will to-night proclaim to a large assembly how splen- 

 didly he wiped thine eye. Thou art oblivious, more- 

 over, of mornings wretched, when thou earnest home 

 to breakfast, blue with cold and black with disappoint- 

 ment, and the great retriever had snarled significantly, 

 eying thy gaitered calves. And thou hast not 

 forgotten to forget those chilly nights, when ' flight 

 time ' found thee shivering like the willow above thee ; 

 and the ducks had a prior engagement. Thou hast 

 not been garrulous how poachers poach ; how foxes 

 (not that I love them less) abduct the sitting part- 

 ridge, and mowers slice them with the ruthless scythe ; 

 how chough and crow, and chattering pies and jays 

 feast on the pheasant's egg ; how weasels drink, like 

 Freshmen wine, the dying coney's blood. ' Silent, oh 

 Moyle,' hast thou been on pointers, chasing recklessly 

 the flying leveret, and barking as though they sang to 



