KEA80N IN THE DOG. 275 



licr oyo on tlio exact spot, she wont tlioro and 

 fastened to the scent slie expected. The gorse was 

 thick enoug'h to have held and concealed a thousand 

 rails, but wlien slie came to '^the fall," slie worked 

 on. Eabbits crossed the line of her quest here and 

 there, but she knew that they were not tlie landrail, 

 and heeded them not at all. Man could give her no 

 useful direction, and tlierefore, unimpeded by extra- 

 neous counsel and anxious interruption, Nellie, 

 let alone ^ sometimes under, sometimes on, the thick 

 furze, fought on through every severe difficulty, and, 

 with triumph in lier frowning little brows, delivered 

 the bird she had sought into my loving and' caress- 

 ing hand. Oh, tliat I could impress this golden 

 rule on all my brother sportsmen, and on all game- 

 keepers, who seldom are sportsmen, never to put a 

 retriever on a running bird unless it is intended 

 that, go where he will, the retriever should get him ! 

 For ever, except at home, I am doomed to see an 

 ass of a keeper go up to tlie fall of a bird and bid 

 his retriever to find him. If the bird is not a 

 ruimer, why then let the man pick him up ; if he 

 is a runner, why then, // you put tlio dog on Iiis 

 traces, in Heaven's name do all you can to let 



him use his own curious discretion^ and let him 



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