98 CONVERSATIONAL HINTS 



each of them carrying, in place of the ordinary 

 beater's stick, a musical instrument of some sort. 

 They were headed by the keeper, who waved a kind 

 of baton. When they got to our covert, they 

 arranged themselves in line, and then, on a signal 

 from Whichello, crash, bang ! they struck up the 

 "Tannhauser March," and disappeared into the 

 wood. 



' "Line up, Trombone ! " shouted the keeper 

 I heard his stentorian roar above the din " Come, 

 hurry along with the Bombardon ; Ophicleide, 

 you're too far in front. Keep it going, Clarinets. 

 Now then, all together ! What are you up to, 

 Cymbals? Let 'em have it!" And thus they 

 came banging and booming and blowing through 

 the covert. The bassoon tripped into a thornbush, 

 the big-drum rolled over the trunk of a tree and 

 smashed his instrument, the hautboy threw his 

 at an escaping rabbit, while the flute-man walked 

 straight into a pool of water, and had to be pulled 

 out by the triangle. But the rest of them got 

 through somehow, with that infernal idiot of a con- 

 ducting keeper still backing and twisting and 

 waving like mad in the front. That was 

 Whichello's idea of beating his coverts. " Com- 



