32 The Gamekeeper at Home. 



cartridge simply barks a bough and cuts a tall dead 

 thistle in twain. But the keeper's lad, who had 

 waited for your fire, instantly follows, as it seems 

 hardly lifting his gun to his shoulder, and the hare is 

 stopped by the shot. 



Rabbit-shooting, also, in an ash wood like this is 

 trying to the temper ; they double and dodge, and 

 if you wait, thinking that the brown rascals must 

 presently cross the partially open space yonder, lo ! 

 just at the very edge up go their white tails and 

 they dive into the bowels of the earth, having made 

 for hidden burrows. There is, of course, after all, 

 nothing but a knack in these things. Still it is some- 

 thing to have acquired the knack. The lad, if you ask 

 him, will proudly show off several gun tricks, as shoot- 

 ing lefthanded, placing the butt at the left instead of 

 the right shoulder and pulling the trigger with the left 

 finger. He will knock over a running rabbit like 

 this ; and at short distances can shoot with tolerable 

 certainty from under the arm without coming to 

 the 'present/ or even holding the gun out like a 

 pistol with one hand. 



By slow degrees he has obtained an intimat 

 acquaintance with every field on the place, and n< 

 little knowledge of natural history. He will decide 

 at once, as if by a kind of instinct, where am 



