260 



THE HUNTER'S ARCADIA. 



hope for better luck next time and many more 

 chances of performing equally unskilfully. 



Having reloaded, my companion hurries me along- 

 side of the brow of the ravine for several hundred 

 yards, then over a dip in the ridge for about the 

 same distance, both being performed at such a killing 

 pace as to be alike unconducive to comfort of body 

 and grace of movement. I never was much account 

 at such spurts, and I did not acquit myself better 

 on this occasion than I usually do, so that when I 

 got well over the ridge it was a case of bellows to 

 mend, and a very bad pair of bellows, too. Oh 1 

 that cruel, inconsiderate son of a heathen parent 

 beseechingly first, imperatively afterwards, he insisted 

 upon my making another effort to reach the shelter 

 of a boulder nearly a hundred yards distant, the 

 intermediate space being covered with rocks and 

 stones varying in size from the dimensions of a 

 pianoforte to that of a cocoa-nut. Fool that I was 

 not to resist the mandate, for in my effort I nearly 

 came a cropper, which, if it had taken place, must 

 either have smashed some important part of my 

 construction or that of my rifle's. However, I have 

 reason to thank that Providence that looks after 





