88 THE OUT-STATION; OR, 



life has been again and again in jeopardy some, 

 whose existence our own nerve has perchance saved 

 in the " very nick of time ;" others, to whose unerring 

 aim we owe the very possibility of our being then and 

 there participators of the scene. 



And mark the very cuisine that hare, now diluted 

 into " potagt," at the head of the table, passed through 

 no gameseller's hands, I warrant ; neither did those 

 jungle fowl, nor the venison cotelettes, nor the par- 

 tridges, nor that undeniable snipe curry ! the furnisher 

 of the feast has procured them " without money and 

 without price" (barring the cost of powder and shot) : 

 and as we make an attack on the "haunch," how 

 vividly we recollect the onslaught made on us by a 

 herd of elephants that our firing at that particular 

 deer had frightened from their lethargy and as, in 

 that moment of self-gratulation, we take off the 

 remainder of our glass of cold claret at a draught, 

 we may almost fancy ourselves to have reached that 

 state said to be denied to miserable sinners in this 

 world, viz. that of supreme, unalloyed happiness, 

 where the " trail of the serpent" has so considerately 

 exceptionised our especial pathway of existence, that 

 if it has left a mark, it is so slight that we perceive it 

 not. 



Reader, if I wander from my subject, forgive me ; 

 but the very thought of the interior of that room 

 has diverted my ideas into the channel of " auld-lang- 

 syne," and to the companionship of many a noble 



