192 TOM DRAW'S VISIT TO PINE BROOK, 



Hushed out of distance, for they would not lie to the dogs at all, 

 rising at once to join them. " We have no chance," said Harry, 

 " no chance at all of doing anything, unless the day changes, 

 and the sun gets out hot, which I fear it wont. Look out^ Tom, 

 watch that beggar to your right there ; he has done drumming, 

 and is going to 'light ;" and with the word, sheer down he 

 darted some ninety yards from <lli spot where we stood, till he 

 was scarce three feet above the marsh ; when he wheeled off, 

 and skimmed the flat, uttering a sharp harsh clatter, entirely 

 different from any sound I ever heard proceed from a snipe's bill 

 before, though in wild weather in the early spring time I have 

 heard it since, full many a day. The cry resembled more the 

 cackling of a hen, which has just laid an egg, than any oth-er 

 sound I -can compare it to ; and consisted of a repetition some 

 ten times in succession of the syllable kek, so hard and jarring 

 that it was difficult to believe it the utterance of so small a 

 bird. But if I was surprised at what I heard, what was I, 

 when I saw the bird alight on the top rail of a high snake 

 fence, and continue there five or ten minutes, when it dropped 

 down into the long marsh grass. Pointing toward the spot- 

 where I had marked it, I was advancing stealthily, when Archer 

 said, " You may try if you like, but I can tell you that you 

 wont get near him!" I persevered, however, and fancied I 

 should get within long shot, but Harry was quite right ; for he 

 rose again skeap ! skeap ! and went off as wild as ever, tower- 

 ing as before, and drumming ; but for a short time only, when, 

 tired apparently of the long flight he had already taken, he 

 stooped from his elevation with the same jarring chatter, and 

 alighted this time to my unmitigated wonder upon the 

 topmost spray of a large willow tree, which grew by the ditch 

 side!* 



"It's not the least use not the least pottering after these 

 birds now," said Harry. " We'll get on to the farther end of the 

 meadows, where the grass is long, and where they may lie 

 something better ; and we'll beat back for these birds in the 

 afternoon, if Dan Phoebus will but deign to shine out." 



* I am aware that this will be difficulty believed even in the United 

 States. But I will not, on that account, fail to record so singular a fact 

 Not a week before I saw this myself, I was told of the fact by a gentle- 

 man, since an Alderman, of New York ; and I am now ashamed to say, 

 doubted it Michael Sanford, of Newark, N". J., was along with me, mid 

 can certify to the fact 





