120 GUN, RIFLE, AND HOUND. 



a snap-shot at him. The smoke hung in the evening 

 air. When it cleared the rabbit was gone. 



" Spoilt the average now," laughed Jack. But 

 when we got to the spot there was the rabbit, whose 

 speed had rolled him across the path and into the 

 heather the other side. So again the laugh was on 

 my side. 



This, roughly speaking, was our contribution to 

 the bag forty odd brace of grouse, half-a-dozen hares, 

 three or four rabbits, a duck, a snipe, and a hawk. 

 I remember the three last items, as they happened to 

 fall to my gun. What the total bag was I forget, but 

 we two guns were satisfied. 



Next day our host declined to face the hill, so 

 we were reduced to a party of three. I was shooting 

 badly, and there were not many birds, so I should 

 have had a dull day had it not been for the amuse- 

 ment the Devonian rector afforded. In the first 

 place, as a sportsman of the old school, he pleaded 

 for dogs, and Jack ordered out a couple a pointer 

 and setter. We had to submit to a good deal of 

 the theory of grouse-shooting on our drive to the 

 moor. At last we made a start, the dogs ranging 

 wildly. Presently one came to a point, and as the 

 other wasn't near him his not backing didn't matter. 

 The parson went to him. Out fluttered a bird, and 

 down it went nearly blown to pieces an old gray 

 hen. The head keeper's face was a study, for the 

 parson had missed several gray hens the day before, 

 and been duly cautioned. 



Not long after there was another point near the 



