THE UPPER RAPIDS. 149 



one night with his gun — what he could he 

 doing with a gun at night, of course I know 

 no more than you do; but, just on that 

 rocky hill above the Mois Ruah, he put his 

 eyes on as fine and fat a hare as you would 

 wish to see ' a feeding alone by the light of 

 the moon.' Johnny lets fly at it — the scoun- 

 drel does not often miss, that I will do him 

 the justice to say; but, when the smoke 

 cleared away, there were two hares, each 

 puss kicking up her heels in defiance. 

 Johnny blazes away again, and there are four 

 hares. If he had only had the courage to go 

 on, it is perfectly evident that, by the com- 

 mon rule of arithmetical progression, he 

 would have stocked Tredennick's covers; 

 but it just then occurred to him that he 

 had heard his grandmother say, — grand- 

 mother, was not it, Johnny? — that the wicked- 

 est witch in the whole country took the form 

 of a hare, to bother poor innocent nocturnal 

 sportsmen, and that to fire at her was the 

 very hoighth of bad luck ; and sure enough 

 so it turned out in this case, for he bolted 

 plump into the arms of Tredennick's keepers, 

 and they would have had him to Enniskillen 

 as sure as a gun, or a great deal surer than 



