A MEEEY CHABIOTEER. 203 



must go first to our intended sporting ground. About 

 forty minutes took us there, our charioteer beguiling the 

 time with innumerable anecdotes and songs, never being 

 silent for a moment. One ditty he was particularly attached 

 to, which I can scarcely forget, he having sung it at least 

 a dozen times : 



" My health and wealth declining, 



The doctor was called in ; 



He spoke to me so serious 



He spoke to me so plain 



' You've racked your constitution 



By getting drunk again.' " 



However, the warning that the medical attendant appears 

 to have given him seemed to be thrown away, for he drank 

 more spirits, with more gusto, and that without showing 

 the effect, than any representative of the genus I ever 

 previously met. 



Arriving on the ground, we determined to hunt Beau and 

 Belle, and keep Jock and Fan for the afternoon. Leaving 

 our waggon by the side of an Osage orange hedge, separating 

 the prairie from a large corn-field, and, having inserted 

 cartridges in each barrel, we commenced work. The 

 ground we intended first beating was rolling prairie, with 

 a sufficiency of grass on it to make the walking good, and 

 the cover tolerable. My companions and self stretched 

 into line and started with the wind in our faces. Before 

 progressing a hundred yards Belle set dead as a statue, and 

 Beau immediately backed. Steadily we walked up to the 

 dogs, expecting immediately to commence fire upon a pack 

 of grouse ; but what was our disappointment to find that 

 the dogs were standing to a covey of partridge scarcely 



