142 WARWICK WOODLANDS. 



it a lie, consarn you ? for if it be, you'd best jest say 't out 

 now, and save your bones to-morrow. Well, boys, the critter's 

 sulky, so most like it is true and I guess we'll be arter him. 

 We'll be up bright and airly, and go a horseback, and if he be 

 there, we can kill him in no time at all, and be right back to 

 breakfast. I'll start Jem and the captain here, and Dave Seers, 

 with the dogs, an hour afore us ! and let them come right down 

 the swale, and drive him to the open Harry and Forester, you 



two can ride your own nags, and I'll take old Roan, and A 



here shall have the colt." 



" Very well ! Timothy, did they feed well to-night ? if they 

 did, give them their oats very early, and no water. I know it's 

 too bad after their work to-day, but we shall not be out two hours !'' 



" Weel ! it's no matter gin they were oot six," responded 

 Timothy, " they wadna be a pin the waur o't !" 



" Take out my rifle, then and pick some buckshot cartridges 

 to fit the bore of all the double guns. Frank's got his rifle ; so 



you can take my heavy single gun your gauge is 17, A , 



quite too small for buckshot; mine is 11, and will do its work 

 clean with Ely's cartridge and pretty heavy powder, at eighty- 

 five to ninety yards. Tom's bore is twelve, and I've brought 

 some to fit his old double, and some, too, for my own gun, 

 though it is almost too small !" 



" What gauge is yours, Harry ?" 



" Fourteen ; which I consider the very best bore possible for 

 general shooting. I think the gunsmiths are running headlong 

 now into the opposite of their old error when they found that 

 6fteens and fourteens outshot vastly the old small calibres 

 fifty years since no guns were larger than eighteen, and few 

 than twenty; they are now quite out-doing it. I have seen 

 late-imported guns of seven pounds, and not above twenty-six 

 inches Jong, with eleven and even ten gauge calibres ! you might 

 as well shoot with a blunderbus at once F' 



" They would tell at cock in close summer covert," answered 

 A . 



" For a man who can't cover his bird they might," replied 

 Harry ; " but you may rely on it they lose three times as much 

 in force as they gain in the space they cover ; at forty yards 

 you could not kill even a woodcock with them once in fifty 

 times, and a quail, or English snipe, at that distance never !" 



" What do you think the right length and weight, then, for 

 an eleven bore ?" 



