AN OLD-FASHIONED DAY 389 



outside of the ditch, apparently unconscious of 

 danger ; as the gun comes up, it stops for a 

 second, turns to the bank, and the next instant 

 rolls head over heels ; almost before there is time 

 to load, another, which had evidently been lying 

 at the head of the wood, probably driven forward 

 by the fox, bolts away on the left, and he, too, 

 bites the dust. And now the beaters are coming 

 nearer, and one by one the guns drop out of the 

 rides and take up their posts along the outside 

 of the wood. As yet but a comparatively few 

 pheasants have broken away on the farther side, 

 but as the beaters, changing their front, begin to 

 circle round, the birds are forced forward to the 

 guns, and for the next half-hour there is plenty of 

 shooting, for, in addition to the pheasants, the 

 rabbits are scuttling about in all directions, the 

 mixture of ground and winged game affording 

 excellent gunnery practice. One moment a 

 pheasant rises, rattling out of the ferns, and 

 swings out through the oak-trees across the little 

 valley, the next a rabbit has to be stopped ere 

 he can reach the turnips. Nor have the back 

 guns been idle, for many of the birds have fallen 

 to their share, and at least one half of the rabbits 

 have slipped back between the beaters. 



Forty brace of pheasants, three woodcock, and 

 a long line of rabbits, together with a sprinkling 

 of hares, to five guns. Not a very extraordinary 

 bag, perhaps, but, surely, ample to satisfy any 

 ordinary individual, and the afternoon work still 



