The First Gun 1 5 



Shot there was in plenty — a whole tobacco-pipe 

 bowl full, carefully measured out of the old yellow can- 

 vas money-bag that did for a shot belt. A starling could 

 be knocked off the chimney with this charge easily, 

 and so could a blackbird roosting in a bush at night. 

 But a woodpigeon nearly thirty yards distant was 

 another matter ; for the old folk (and the birdkeepers 

 too) said that their quills were so hard the shot would 

 glance aside unless it came with great force. Ver>- 

 likely the pigeon would escape, and all the rabbits 

 in the buries would be too frightened to come out 

 at all. 



A beautiful bird he was on the bough, perched 

 well in view and clearly defined against the sky 

 behind ; and my eye travelled along the groove on 

 the breech and up the barrel, and so to the sight and 

 across to him ; and the finger, which always would 

 keep time with the eye, pulled at the trigger. 



A mere puff of a report, and then a desperate 

 fluttering in the tree and a cloud of white feathers 

 floating above the hedge, and a heavy fall among the 

 bushes. He was down, and Orion's spaniel (that 

 came racing like mad from the rickyard the instant 

 he heard the discharge) had him in a moment. 

 Orion followed quickly. Then the shepherd came 

 up, rather stiff on his legs from rheumatism, and 



