146 THE OUT-STATION ; OR 3 



would follow, and every one would sally forth in 

 pursuit of adding some little delicacy to our table in 

 the evening. 



But, talking of delicacies ! I made a discovery 

 there, that had I done the same at home, and been 

 born a cook instead of an ensign, Careme himself 

 would have done homage to me. 



It happened one day, after having been out and 

 finding nothing for several hours, that on tumbling 

 up over some rocks to get a good view of the sea, I 

 came upon an animal never encountered before in all 

 my excursions, and which, at first, rather astonished me. 



The first thing I did was to drop in a bullet over 

 the shot already in the gun, and shoot him. 



On coming up to the animal, I found, to my 

 horror, that I had shot my own crest (a most unlucky 

 omen, I should fancy), and a " Porcupine," in all the 

 fretfulness of a hundred quills, lay dead before me. 



However, I absolved my conscience for the mur- 

 derous deed, by considering what an appropriate 

 addition it would make, after being stuffed, to a 

 family lobby ; arid advanced to lift him up to carry 

 home for this purpose, a proceeding I found easier to 

 imagine than to perform ; until, by tying his legs 

 together, and in this way slinging him across my 

 gun, I managed to get along pretty comfortably, with 

 the exception of a sharp prick or two now and then. 



It was under these circumstances that I unluckily 

 fell in with a large shooting party, and my stagger- 

 ing along with a porcupine on my shoulders formed a 



