194 TOM DRAW r S VISIT TO PINE BROOK. 



down very neatly ; the left hand bird, however, pitched up a 

 few feet just as I drew the trigger, and the consequence was 

 that, as I fancied, I missed him clean. 



" There ! there ! you stoopid, blundering, no-sich-thing 

 there ! now who talks of missing ? That was the nicest, pretti- 

 est, easiest shot I ever did see ; and you you shiftless nigger 

 you you talks to me of missing !'* 



" Shut up ! shut up ! you most incorrigible old brute !" re- 

 sponded Harry, who had been steadily employed in marking the 

 missed bird, as I deemed him. " Shut up your stupid jaw ! 

 That snipe's as dead as the old cow you gave us for supper, the 

 last time we slept at Warwick, though from a different cause ; 

 for the cow, Jem Flyn says, died of the murrain or some other 

 foul rotten disorder ; and that small winged fellow has got a 

 very sufficient dose of blue pill to account for his decease ! So 

 shut up ! and keep still while I take the change out of these 

 confounded dogs, or we shall have every bird we get near to- 

 day flushed like those two. Ha ! Shot ! Ha ! Chase ! Down 

 cha-a-arge down cha-a-arge will you ? will you ? Down 

 charge !" 



And for about five minutes, nothing was heard upon the 

 meadows but the resounding clang of the short heavy dog- 

 whip, the stifled grunts of Shot, and the vociferous yells of 

 Chase, under the merited and necessary chastisement. 



" Down charge, now, will you ?" he continued, as, pocketing 

 his whip, he wiped his heated brow, picked up his gun, and 

 proceeded to bag the scattered game. " There ! that job's 

 done," he said, " and a job that I hate most confoundedly it is 

 but it must be done now and then ; and the more severely, 

 when necessary, the more mercifully !" 



" Now that's what I doos call a right down lie," the fat man 

 interposed. " You loves it, and you knows you do you loves 

 to lick them poor dumb brutes, cause they can't lick back, no 

 how. You, Chase, darn you, quit mouthing that there snipe 

 quit mouthing it, I sav else I'll cut out the snoopin soul of 

 you ! 



" So much for Tom Draw's lecture upon cruelty to animals 

 that's what I call rich !" answered Harry. " But come, let us 

 get on. I marked that bird to a yard, down among those 

 dwarf rose-bushes ; and there we shall find, I'll be bound on it, 

 good shooting. How very stupid of me not to think of that 



