The Amateur Poacher 



bathing in the lake ? We had to jump down with a 

 run ; and then came the difficulty ; for black dusty 

 cobwebs, the growth of fifty years, clothed us from 

 head to foot There was no brushing or picking 

 them off, with that loud whistle repeated every two 

 minutes. 



The fact where we had been was patent to all ; 

 and so the chairs got burned — but one, which was 

 rickety. After which a story crept out, of a disjointed 

 skeleton lying in a corner under the thatch. Though 

 just a little suspicious that this might be a ruse to 

 frighten us from a second attempt, we yet could not 

 deny the possibility of its being true. Sometimes in 

 the dusk, when I sat poring over ' Koenigsmark, the 

 Robber,' by the little window in the cheese-room, a 

 skull seemed to peer down the trapdoor. But then I 

 had the flintlock by me for protection. 



There were giants in the days when that gun 

 was made ; for surely no modern mortal could have 

 held that mass of metal steady to his shoulder. The 

 linen-press and a chest on the top of it formed, 

 however, a very good gun-carriage ; and, thus mounted, 

 aim could be taken out of the window at the old 

 mare feeding in the meadow below by the brook, 

 and a * bead ' could be drawn upon Molly, the dairy- 

 maid, kissing the fogger behind the hedge, little 



