82 WARWICK WOODLANDS* 



" Run after him, Frank," Archer called to me, " you are the 

 lightest ; and we'll beat up the swale till you return. You saw 

 the tree he took ?" 



"Aye, aye I" said I preparing to make off. 



" Well ! he sits near the top now mind me ! no chivalry, 

 Frank ! give him no second chance a ruffed grouse, darting 

 downward from a tall pine tree, is a shot to balk the devil it's 

 full five to one that you shoot over and behind him give him 

 no mercy !" 



Off I went, and after a brisk trot, five or six minutes long, 

 reached my tree, saw my bird perched on a broken limb close 

 to the time-blanched trunk, cocked my Joe Manton, and was in 

 the very act of taking aim, when something so peculiar in the 

 motion of the bird attracted me, that I paused. He was nodding 

 like a sleepy man, and seemed with difficulty to retain his foot- 

 hold. While I was gazing, he let go, pitched headlong, fluttered 

 his wings in the death-struggle, yet in air, and struck the ground 

 close at my feet, stone-dead. Tom's first shot had cut off the 

 whole crown of the head, with half the brain and the right 

 eye ; and after that the bird had power to fly five or six hun- 

 dred yards, and then to cling upon its perch for at least ten 

 minutes. 



Rejoining my companions, we again went onward, slaying 

 and bagging as we went, till when the sun was at meridian we 

 sat down beside the brook to make our frugal meal not to-day 

 of grilled woodcock and champagne, but of hard eggs, salt, 

 biscuit, and Scotch whiskey not so bad either nor were we 

 disinclined to profit by it. We were still smoking on the marge, 

 when a shot right ahead told us that our out-skirting party was 

 at hand. 



All in an instant were on the alert ; in twenty minutes we 

 joined forces, and compared results. We had twelve grouse, 

 five rabbits, seventeen woodcock ; they, six gray squirrels, 

 seven grouse, and one solitary cock Tim, proud as Lucifer at 

 having led the field. But his joy now was at an end for to 

 his charge the setters were committed to be led in leash, while 

 we shot on, over the spaniels. Another dozen grouse, and 

 eighteen rabbits, completed our last bag in the Woodlands. 



Late was it when we reached the Teachmans' hut and long 

 and deep was the carouse that followed ; and when the moon 

 had sunk and we were turning in, Tom Draw swore with a 

 mighty oath of deepest emphasis that since we had passed a 



