228 EEMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN. 



request to know Low he could expect to be alive after 

 firhi"- off such a dangerously crammed implement of 

 universal destruction. The smith, still eyeing his gun 

 with intense approbation, reached out his arm and 

 patted the stock, " Wall," he said, " my lord, nae dout 

 she's dangerous to the fowl, but she's used me wall 

 this time, it tacks twenty minutes gude afore I comes 

 to mvself, wlien I lets her off on most occasions, but 

 I always gets my goose." The only difference between 

 the guests at Berkeley Castle and our Eoxburgh 

 blacksmith is, that the latter got his goose, while the 

 former never touched a feather. 



The geese,if properly taken as they come towards the 

 shooter, and almost directly over the gun, when killed, 

 fall behind the gunners in the mud ; and generally 

 one or two of the guests are seen with bloody noses, 

 and holding their right arms in hideous positions, as 

 if their shoulders were out, it being settled by the 

 leader, that old single-barrelled overgrown muskets, 

 with bell-mouths, five feet eight in the barrel, and 

 hammers that carry a flag-stone for a flint, with pans 

 the size of soup-tureens, and stocks so short that a 

 man's nose rests on his thumb when he takes aim 

 and pulls the trigger, are the only things that men 

 sliall kill geese with. One or two wounded men are 

 always seen in this dilapidated state lying in the mud, 

 their hats flown off and gone to sea, and the engine 

 which they had let off sticking upright on its muzzle, 

 the heaviest part about it, and threatening to fall on 

 til em. 



" ]\Ieaster So-and-so," asks a sly old keeper under 

 his breath, " what be the matter with you ?" 



" Oh !" replies the guest, with a suppressed groan, 

 " my shoulder's out." 



