MEMORIES OF GLENAUGH. 87 



tiful ; and we did badly if we did not bring 

 home thirteen or fourteen brace of snipe. For 

 all this I never met such a grumbler as Jack 

 Sullivan. He is the most incorrigible growler. 

 "The birds is lavin' the country," he says 

 bitterly ; " and what else are ye to expict from 

 the state 'tis in ?" Also, " They're not half 

 the size they wor ; an' as for the cocks, they're 

 nothin' but thraneens" (tit-larks) " kimpared 

 wud the cocks av ould times." Joe, how- 

 ever, who never intends to grow old, is as cau- 

 tious as Swift was to avoid the usual symp- 

 toms of that inevitable condition. He is care- 

 ful not to prose or to maunder about epochs 

 that are to me as the dark ages, and he is satis- 

 fied with the bags we pick up ; his pedestrian 

 powers are yet amazing in fact, no amount of 

 exertion seems to tire him. Occasionally I 

 used to drive off some five or six miles towards 

 the coast for an evening's shooting at the Pill. 

 Uncle Joe seldom cared to accompany me on 

 these expeditions. 



The Pill is a creek with mud banks up which 

 birds that haunt the sea come at certain times 

 of wind and tide. It was a great resource to 



