164 WARWICK WOODLANDS. 



"Which will you take to drink, Tom?" inquired Forester, 

 very gravely " fowl, pork, or crackers ? Here they are, all of 

 them! I prefer whiskey and water, myself!" qualifying, as he 

 spoke, a moderate cup with some of the ice-cold water which 

 welled out in a crystal stream from a small basin under the 

 wreathed roots of the sycamore which overshadowed them. 



" None of your nonsense, Forester hand us the liquor, lad 

 I'm dry, I tell you !" 



" I wish you'd tell me something I don't know, then, if you 

 feel communicative ; for I know that you're dry now and al- 

 ways ! Well ! don't be mad, old fellow, here's the bottle 

 don't empty it that's all !" 



" Well ! now I've drinked," said Tom, after a vast potation, 

 " now I've drinked good we'll have a bite and rest awhile, 

 and smoke a pipe ; and then we'll use them quail, and we'll 

 have time to pick up twenty cock in Hell-hole arterwards, and 

 that won't be a slow day's work, I reckon." 



THE QUAIL. 



"CERTAINLY this, is a very lovely country," exclaimed the 

 Commodore suddenly, as he gazed with a quiet eye, puffing his 

 cigar the while, over the beautiful vale, with the clear expanse 

 of Wickham's Pond in the middle foreground, and the wild 

 hoary mountains framing the rich landscape in the distance. 



" Truly, you may say that," replied Harry ; " I have travelled 

 over a large part of the world, and for its own peculiar style of 

 loveliness, I must say that I never have seen any thing to match 

 with the vale of Warwick. I would give much, very much, to 

 own a few acres, and a snug cottage here, in which I might 

 pass the rest of my days, far aloof from the 



Fumum et opes strepitumque Romae." 



" Then, why the h 1 don't you own a few acres ?" put in an- 

 cient Tom ; " I'd be right glad to know, and gladder yit to have 

 you up here, Archer." 



" I would indeed, Tom," answered Harry ; " I'm not joking at 

 all ; but there are never any small places to be bought here- 

 about ; and, as for large ones, your land is so confounded good, 

 that a fellow must be a nabob to think of buying." 



