1 6 The Amateur Poacher 



stepped the distance, declaring it was thirty yards 

 good ; after which we all walked home in triumph. 



Molly the dairymaid came a little way from the 

 rickyard, and said she would pluck the pigeon that 

 very night after work. She was always ready to do 

 anything for us boys : and we could never quite 

 make out why they scolded her so for an idle hussy 

 indoors. It seemed so unjust. Looking back, I 

 recollect she had very beautiful brown eyes. 



' You mind you chaws the shot well, measter,' 

 said the shepherd, 'afore you loads th' gun. The 

 more you chaws it the better it sticks thegithcr, an' 

 the furder it kills um : ' a theory of gunnery that 

 which was devoutly believed in in his time and 

 long anticipated the wire cartridges. And the old 

 soldiers that used to come round to haymaking, glad 

 of a job to supplement their pensions, were veiy 

 positive that if you bit the bullet and indented it with 

 your teeth, it was perfectly fatal, no matter to what 

 part of the body its billet took it. 



In the midst of this talk as we moved on, I carry- 

 ing the gun at the trail with the muzzle downwards, 

 the old ramrod, long disused and shrunken, slipped 

 half out ; the end caught the ground, and it snapped 

 short off in a second. A terrible disaster this, turning 

 everything to bitterness : Orion was especially wroth, 



