266 Sporting Sketches 



he showed no disposition to ask me to join him for 

 a hunt until the season was well advanced. I could 

 laugh now as I think of the times when I acciden- 

 tally met him on the road near the village ; how I'd 

 pretend not to see him, and would toss up a small 

 stone and rattle a load of shot against it before it 

 fell, and how at last I killed a flying pigeon at long 

 range longer range than Lewis had credited to 

 the despised shot-gun. That time he stopped and 

 said : " Canady, I reckon yer pretty handy with that 

 scatter-gun, if that pigeon wasn't killed by accident. 

 Wish I could run you up agin' a drove of pa'tridge 

 they'd fool you, fur yer can't hit them fellers when 

 they're goin' in arnist." 



This was said in such a decided tone that I 

 almost laughed. I told him that " pa'tridges " were 

 easy enough sometimes, and to my delight he ex- 

 claimed : " Is that so ! Well, I'll show you they 

 ain't; I just passed a drove of 'em a piece back, 

 an' if yer game to go, I'll take you to 'em, and see 

 how you shoot." 



Lewis's " pa'tridge " were ruffed grouse, and we 

 soon found the brood in some briers. When they 

 rose in the open, I managed to kill with each barrel. 

 The first bird was the old hen, and the fact of the 

 second being a slow young one made the right-and- 

 left easy. Lewis was thunderstruck, and his surprise 

 was heightened when he saw the old bird. But in 

 a moment his prejudice reasserted itself, and he 

 remarked : 



"Slick work, Canady yer a hummer; but did 

 you hear how she roared through the timber? 

 That durn gun's too noisy she'd scare every- 



