86 GAME-BIRDS AT HOME. 



hammered the loads into the guns as fast as 

 gravity would allow us to raise the ramrods. 



Bbbbbbb bang went a bird and a gun almost 

 together, and Bbbbbbbbb went half a dozen more 

 as the first one fell into the grass. Bang-k-bang 

 went three more shots, and two birds sank like 

 lead, while four with uproarious wing and invio- 

 late raiment rent the rising breeze, and before 

 our empty guns three more rose and hastened 

 on to keep them company. 



And now the dog broke his point. That 

 mysterious power that tells a dog the difference 

 between the scent of a live bird and a dead one 

 is nothing to the delicacy that tells him at once 

 when all the hidden birds have risen, though 

 scent must certainly remain in the grass a minute 

 or two. But up he came at once, on a slow trot 

 that showed he knew what he was about, and 

 straight he went for the dead ones. 



The fallen birds retrieved, the dog went can- 

 tering gayly toward the place where the scat- 

 tered birds had gone, for it paid to follow them 

 a long way, and on their track was as good a 

 place as any other to find a new flock. Here 

 he suddenly wheeled, marched a few paces up 



