LETTER XIV. 149 



upon the hare, exclaiming, *' Squaak, squaak, is it, my 

 dear ? 'Tis no use your crying out, for the squire can't 

 hear you, and you calls me master now." " Wait a bit," 

 says the governor to himself, ** I shall put in a word or 

 two, presently, my boy." So he takes a few steps back- 

 wards, and, at about sixty yards' distance, as Falstaff 

 says, he " lets drive" at Jim's seat, which was exposed 

 by his stooping position, and a particular patch of white 

 corduroy attached. The uproar that ensued was indescri- 

 bable almost. It was Jim's turn now to cry out, which 

 he did with a vengeance ; and, scrambHng over the gate, 

 he ran away from the field as fast as his legs could carry 

 him, leaving, in his confusion, both nets and hare be- 

 hind. The governor, having coolly re-loaded, approached 

 the spot, took up the hare and nets, and carried them 

 home. " Who is master now," soliloquised my father ! 

 The next day it was all over the parish that Jim had 

 met with a sad mishap in the night, but he would not 

 tell Jww, and was obliged to take to his bed ; his wife 

 having some trouble to pick the shots out. 



In a few days, however, he was all right again ; and, 

 happening to meet the squire, he asked him what had 

 been the matter. *' Oh, Sir," said Jim, " you shouldn't 

 have done it ; it were too near, it were, and 'twere like 

 hot pins running into me." " What's the fool talking 

 about?" said the squire; "I suppose you got drunk, 

 coming home- from market, tumbled into a black-thorn 

 bush, and then fancied some one had been peppering 

 you." " Oil no, squire, 'twernt no fancy, and I warn't 

 drunk, and if I had, the tickling I got would soon a so- 

 bered any body ; but I won't be caught at that game 

 any more, you may depend on't." "Very well," said the 



