Farmer IVillums Place. 1 8 1 



and the discharges seemingly so near that we became 

 afraid to hold the gun, knowing that metal attracted 

 electricity. So it was put in the hollow tree out of 

 the wet, and with it the powder-flask, while we 

 crouched under an adjacent hawthorn till the storm 

 ceased. 



Then by the much-patched and heavy gate where 

 I shot my first snipe, that rose out of the little stream 

 and went straight up over the top bar. The emotion, 

 for it was more than excitement, of that moment will 

 never pass from memory. It was the bird of all 

 others that I longed to kill, and certainly to a lad the 

 most difficult. Day after day I went down into the 

 water-meadows; first thinking over the problem of 

 the snipe's peculiar twisting flight. At one time I 

 determined that I would control the almost irresist- 

 ible desire to fire till the bird had completed his 

 burst of zig-zag and settled to something like a 

 straight line. At another I as firmly resolved to 

 shoot the moment the snipe rose before he could begin 

 to twist. But some unforeseen circumstance always 

 interfered with the execution of these resolutions. 



Now the snipe got up unexpectedly right under 

 foot ; now one rose thirty yards ahead ; now he 

 towered straight up, forced to do so by the tall wil- 

 lows ; and occasionally four or five rising together and 



