SHOOTING THE RETRIEVER. 105 



sprung close to the narrator, and, without being able 

 to cover it, he fired in the line it was flying, and 

 thought he heard something fall and flutter among the 

 undei'T^'ood. It could not, nevertheless, be foimd ; 

 and after losing his time and his patience, he was 

 just back soon enough not to lose his dinner to boot. 



Now this bird was of no ordinary value, for it 

 would have entitled him to one half of a sweepstakes 

 of £35, the whole of which would otherwise go to the 

 possessor of the first woodcock that was shot. In 

 due course, the lucky subscriber claimed the money, 

 which, at the instance of the author, was withheld 

 for the night, as he urged he had knocked down a 

 cock, that would most probably be yet brought to bag. 

 To make one great final eflbrt, he procured the bird 

 which had been killed, and laying it carefully before 

 his retriever, with a strong light thrown on it, and 

 then drawing it repeatedly across her nose, he re- 

 turned with her to the cover, and cheering her with 

 the signal — " Seek dead ! " he put her into it. After 

 waiting till midnight, and using every efl'ort to reclaim 

 her, he returned, leading her there. In the morning 

 she made her way into the breakfast-room, dming 

 the meal, with the dead woodcock in her mouth ! 



As a proof of her courage, she would leap, at a 

 signal from his hand, from ofl" the paddle-box of a 

 steam- vessel of the largest class, when going at full 

 speed, and in the heaviest weather, with seas rolling as 

 high as the funnel. Alas, poor Venom ! he may surely 

 say of thee, he " shall ne'er look upon thy like again." 



