FEATS OF MASTER HARRY. 77 



rod, line, reel and all, quite complete. Down it came from 

 London resplendent with varnish, and many cunning 

 feats did I perform with it. About this time I learned 

 to shoot ; not that I was strong enough to hold a gun, 

 but that the keeper put the said implement to his 

 shoulder, when I took aim at larks and sparrows, and 

 those sort of things, and pulled the trigger. So I waxed 

 in years and wisdom. All the time I could steal from 

 my lessons (for I was not quite a Pawnee) I spent in 

 this edifying manner ; at length I was fully initiated in 

 all the mysteries of sporting by a relation, himself the 

 prince of sportsmen, who took a fancy to me. The 

 reason was as follows : — 



In the depth of winter, the ground being smothered 

 with snow, and the blast bitter, I followed him out a 

 wild-fowl shooting. I was devoid of hat, an article that I 

 looked upon as superfluous, and that I always lost or mis- 

 laid as soon as it was given me. Equipped I was in white 

 cotton stockings ; and my shoes, which were of the thin- 

 nest, I had tied to my feet with a string which passed 

 over the instep. I could not put them up at heel with 

 any comfort, because I had large chilblains there, which 

 were broke. At length, after creeping a space on my 

 gloveless hands and knees in the snow, and under cover 

 of some sedge and willow bushes, up flew some wild 

 ducks before my patron. " Quack, quack ! " — down came 

 one to his shot, and fell with a splash into the river. In 

 I plunged after him like a Newfoundland dog : you 

 might have heard the flounce in a still day at Chippen- 

 ham, about six miles off. The duck not being dead, made 

 ' a swim and a dive of it. Long and dubious was the 



