The Gamekeeper at Home, 



retaining the shot ; so that when cleaned out, before 

 the smoke fouled it again, he had to load with paper. 

 This in a measure anticipated the ' choke-bore,' and 

 his gun was always famous for its killing power. The 

 varnish is worn from the stock by incessant friction 

 against his coat, showing the real grain of the walnut- 

 wood, and the trigger-guard with the polish of the 

 sleeve shines like silver. It has been his companion 

 for so many years that it is not strange he should feel 

 an affection for it ; no other ever fitted the shoulder 

 so well, or came with such delicate precision to the 

 * present ' position. So accustomed is he to its 

 baiance and ' hang ' in the hand that he never thinks 

 of aiming ; he simply looks at the object, still or 

 moving, throws the gun up from the hollow of his 

 arm, and instantly pulls the trigger, staying not a 

 second to glance along the barrel. It has become 

 almost a portion of his body, answering like a limb to 

 the volition of will without the intervention of reflec- 

 tion. The hammers are chased and elegantly shaped 

 — perfectly matching : when once the screw came 

 loose, and the jar of a shot jerked one off among the 

 dead leaves apparently beyond hope of recovery, he 

 never rested night or day till by continuous search 

 and sifting the artistic piece of metal was found. 

 Nothing destroys the symmetry of a gun so much as 



