380 REMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN. 



did not portend either pain or the approach of death, 

 and yet he lay still in apparent convulsions of feature. 

 A horrible pause was the consequence, when suddenly 

 the finger and thumb of the raised and pausing hand 

 went quickly to the bloody lips, and going in precisely 

 as Jack Horner's digits did when he pulled out the 

 plum, the hand returned towards the face of the 

 anxious gazers, backed by the boy's grinningly proud 

 exclamation of " Here a is," and held up to us, 

 spectacles and all, a shot. 1'he fact was, one shot 

 had cut the lip of the boy, and stuck tightly between 

 his teeth ; the evolutions of his tongue and semblance 

 of mastication arose in an endeavour to extract his 

 enemy, causing him to lie speechlessly still, engender- 

 ing in our minds the idea of convulsions and death. 

 It is impossible to describe the effect that this sudden 

 elucidation of the mystery had on us; all I know is 

 that I laughed till my sides ached again, when on 

 rewarding the boy with half a crown, he informed 

 that excellent servant Beard, the head gamekeeper, 

 that he would be similarly shot every day for half the 

 sum. 



