" MY KINGDOM FOR A rACK,"" QS 



began to bustle about and run over each other with orcat 



activity, and therefore what mattered it ? only that if my 



friend had told the truth about it at once, I should not 



have died by inches as I had done. The things put aside, 



we turned out for a few hours shootinfv, but the frame was 



a dream too. All day we ftigged up hill and down dale, 



but save one poor hare that one of the dogs caught 



in her form, nought had we in our bags, and had only 



seen one covey of birds. My friend w^as furious, and I 



sulky, and we returned in a bad mood, my temper not 



sweetened by the prospect of an evening in a room full of 



smoke, with people whose language (the Breton) I was 



almost io;norant of. But all thino;s have an end save a 



dumpling ; and having fed our dogs, changed our clothes, 



fed well ourselves, and lighted our pipes, we began to 



.expand until the chimney corner became too small for us. 



By that time it was night, and the labourers and people 



liad all entered, and stood and lay down staring at us, as 



if we were opossums, when on a sudden a bright thought, 



:and one truly French, entered into the fertile brain of 



■my friend, — a game at cards ! " A pack ! a pack ! my 



^kingdom for a pack ! " and there being none, a rustic youth 



■was forthwith dispatched to the little village, about a mile 



•oif, to purchase a pack, with strict injunctions to tany 



not, as he valued his head and a {joutte of brandy on his 



return. In a m.arvellously short time he reappeared, his 



face in a blaze, as he had run all the way against a cold 



wind, and what a shout w^elcomed him ! Out with the 



table; light another rushlight; sweep off the crumbs and 



liquids; let those sit upon seats who can get them, and 



E 



