280 SERPENTINE MOVEMENTS. 



to wreathe themselves through the heather like serpents. 

 The ground was dry, but the operation was tedious, and 

 even painful, so that they took occasional moments of rest. 

 They dared not raise their heads ever so little out of the 

 dewy heather, which they shaved so closely that there 

 was scarcely a waistcoat button left in the party. They 

 strove with their feet, and clawed with their hands, still 

 making but slow progress. At length their hearts throbbed 

 with nervous excitement, for they were fairly within a 

 hundred yards of a long shot. For a space they rested 

 to ease their limbs, and gain steadiness, still lying ex- 

 tended like corpses. Tortoise whispered, "Now then 

 be calm, and when we come within distance, take the hart 

 to the right, he is the best; a little further and our 

 task is done." 



Twenty yards forwarder they gained in security; 

 another ten with the same success; they were getting 

 nearer and nearer every moment, and their hearts trembled. 

 There was a little knoll, or small rise of ground, before 

 them, where the heather grew in larger tufts, and this 

 point once gained (of which there was every probability), 

 they would be within reasonable distance of as fine harts, 

 they roundly asserted, as any in the forest; so onward 

 they still crawled, with pain and fatigue. 



But if deer-stalking, or any other species of sporting, 

 were of easy achievement, what would become of all those 

 delightful changes that animate us in the chase ? no longer 

 would our bosoms throb with hope, or sink from an appre- 

 hension of failure ; we should keep " the even tenor of our 

 way," tame in pursuit of the quarry; and, as Captain 

 Bobadil has it, " too respectful of nature's fair lineaments." 



