FOR YOUNG SHOOTERS 79 



to be the chief of such an army. He is always 

 getting out of line, pressing forward unduly, or 

 hanging back too much, and the loud voice of the 

 keeper makes the woods resound with remonstrance, 

 entreaty, and blame, hurled at his bovine head. 

 After lunch, it is true, the beater wakes up for a 

 little. Then shall you hear William exchanging 

 confidences from one end of the line to the other 

 with Jarge, while the startled pheasant rises too 

 soon and goes back, to the despair of the keeper 

 and the guns. Then, too, are heard the shouts of 

 laughter which greet the appearance of a rabbit, 

 and the air is thick with the sticks that the joyous, 

 beery beaters fling at the scurrying form of their 

 hereditary foe. It is marvellous to note with what 

 a venomous hatred the beater regards the bunny. 

 Pheasant or partridge he is careless of ; even the 

 hare is, in comparison, a thing of nought, but let 

 him once set eyes on a rabbit, and his whole being 

 seems to change. His eye absolutely flashes, his 

 chest heaves with excitement beneath the ancient 

 piece of sacking that protects his form from thorns. 

 If the rabbit falls to the shot, he yells with exulta- 

 tion ; if it be missed, an expression of morose and 

 gloomy disappointment settles on his face, and you 



