The First Gun 15 



Shot there was in plenty a whole tobacco-pipe 

 bowl full, carefully measured out of the old yellow can- 

 vas money-bag that did for a shot belt. A starling could 

 be knocked off the chimney with this charge easily, 

 and so could a blackbird roosting in a bush at night. 

 But a woodpigeon nearly thirty yards distant was 

 another matter ; for the old folk (and the birdkeepers 

 too) said that their quills were so hard the shot would 

 glance aside unless it came with great force. Very 

 likely the pigeon would escape, and all the rabbits 

 in the buries would be too frightened to come out 

 at all. 



A beautiful bird he was on the bough, perched 

 well in view and clearly defined against the sky 

 behind ; and my eye travelled along the groove on 

 the breech and up the barrel, and so to the sight and 

 across to him ; and the finger, which always would 

 keep time with the eye, pulled at the trigger. 



A mere puff of a report, and then a desperate 

 fluttering in the tree and a cloud of white feathers 

 floating above the hedge, and a heavy fall among the 

 bushes. He was down, and Orion's spaniel (that 

 came racing like mad from the rickyard the instant 

 he heard the discharge) had him in a moment. 

 Orion followed quickly. Then the shepherd came 

 up, rather stiff on his legs from rheumatism, and 



