154 REMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN 



brance of Justice Midas before his eyes, ordered him to receive 

 the money ! 



One day in the early part of the winter I was in Odell 

 Dungey Wood looking after the game, when I saw three men 

 stooping among the " young spring,' 1 that is, the first shoot of 

 the copsewood after it has been cut. We had had snares set in 

 this wood by the road-side, and had captured an offender, and 

 I made no doubt these men were at the same game. They 

 seemed to be busily searching the runs, and were coming 

 directly towards me : so with my deer-dog and retriever Shark, 

 the son of Smoker, I lay down behind an old pollard stump. 

 On they came; and intent as they were, their eyes on the 

 ground, the middle man of the three almost stepped upon me. 

 Up I jumped, my gun in the left hand, and with the right I 

 knocked him down, and then ran at the other two. Off they 

 set, different ways, one for the road and one for the field 

 between Dungey and Forty Acres. I pursued the latter, taking 

 care not to fall over the stumps, while he, running wild, and in 

 taking a flyer at the wattled hedge out of the cover, caught his 

 toe in the top binder, and went headlong into the field. Up he 

 got, though worsted by the fall, and continued his flight. I 

 did not want to be put out of breath with three men about me ; 

 so I called to him, " that it should be the worse for him if he 

 did not stop." Down he fell on his knees, and began to pray 

 for pardon. Having contented myself with searching his 

 pockets, in which I found nothing, I ordered him off, in haste to 

 return and see that the man I had left on the ground, or the 

 other who had set off* to run away, did not take up anything 

 that might be there. When I got back to the wood the fallen 

 man had picked himself up and was nowhere to be seen, and I 

 had the wood to myself. On searching the ground I discovered 

 that they were stealing acorns, for they had left behind them 

 three sacks, each half full. Those woods being a long way from 

 home, I always went to them for the day, and carried a small 

 pocket-flask containing a glass of sherry, and also a sandwich. 

 Having sat on one of the sacks, those viands were produced, 



