114 AMERICAN GAME. 



dog's nose, who went on without taking the least notice 

 either to stand or to chase "Tolio!" and at the word, 

 the staunch brutes both came to a stand, irresolute of 

 course, and uncertain, as a stand always must be, when 

 dogs do not know what they are upon, but still, without 

 a forward motion, after the word met their ears. But, 

 even as he shouted, Harry pitched up his gun to his eye, 

 literally drawing the trigger as it rose, so that it was 

 discharged the instant the butt struck his shoulder for 

 the bird had sprung wild, at least twenty yards off, in 

 the first instance, and the wind blowing very fresh, in 

 cold squalls, had gone away, as if 'the devil drove,' di- 

 rectly in the teeth of the north-wester, zigzaging it with 

 all his wings, and reiterating his sharp squeak, as if in 

 triumph. But there was a quick eye, and nimble finger 

 behind, and a gun, that if held straight, was wont to tell 

 a tale ; and when he had got some iive-and-forty yards 

 away, the strength of the charge struck him full, and 

 sent him, doubled up like a rag, some six yards further 

 forward. At the report, as is very often the case, in 

 snipe shooting, a second bird, which would have skulked 

 and allowed them to pass him, jumped up within three 

 feet of Archer's toe, and wheeling half round him to 

 get the wind, was cut down, completely riddled, before 

 he had flown ten paces. At the second shot, the mead- 

 ow seemed literally alive with birds, some thirty or 

 forty rising one by one, between the young men and the 

 dogs, most of them in front of the Baltimorean, and 



