MY FIRST "TWELFTH." 119 



spoke. Presently up got a snipe, and down it went. 

 I couldn't find it anywhere though, and Jack began 

 to laugh. The keeper slipped his retriever, but with 

 no result. 



" Bother the snipe ! I thought I was on it." 



I was just turning away, when I saw it, wedged 

 between two stones of the dyke some four feet off 

 the ground. No wonder the dog couldn't find it. 

 The laugh was now on my side. 



At last it was time to go home. We were de- 

 scending a brae, when four grouse got up wild, and 

 alighted on the far side of a narrow gorge down 

 which a brook ran. One of them looked very large 

 to me, and I suggested we should drive them. Ac- 

 cordingly, the keeper made a detour for the purpose 

 while we crept into cover. I made for a gorse-bush 

 on the near edge of the valley. It could not have 

 been fifty yards across, for I could distinctly see the 

 grouse-cock, and I fancied his bright red eye was 

 fixed on me. The keeper coming suddenly on him, 

 I suppose, put me out of his mind, for he flew straight 

 towards me. I stood up, and he tried to rise out of 

 danger. Vain hope, and in a minute he was whirling 

 down close by me. He was, indeed, a lovely bird, in 

 perfect plumage, and the heaviest grouse I ever saw 

 shot I forget the exact weight. The hens had 

 turned off, and Jack shot two. These were the last 

 grouse of the day. 



Just before we left the moor the retriever, now 

 running loose, put up a rabbit, which darted across 

 the path at great speed. I was in front and had 



