110 THE DAILY LIFE OF OUR FARM. 



"Oh! him be Uou'ed, sir!" "Blowed! What do 

 you mean ? " " Why, you see, sir, when you gave orders 

 to have them poachers trapped on account of the phea- 

 sants, the very first night why ours gets nabbed and 

 breaks both her legs, so as it was a mercy to put her 

 out of her pain. Well then, says I, as the worst is 

 come to the worst, we must get summit out of you ; so 

 I skins her for a cap, and I slits her in two or three 

 places, and hangs her in a bush by the brook, where the 

 cray-fish do mostly congregate. There the fly soon 

 settled on her, and, now they're hatched, the maggots 

 do flop out beautifully, and you'll have a nice dish soon." 

 " Save me from such," I exclaim, with an involuntary 

 shudder ; and, being now myself somewhat blown, con- 

 clude. 



And so it was a mistake altogether, and the experi- 

 ment came to nothing. Certainly, most certainly, the 

 experiment did come to nothing, but it was only for a 

 night. With the bright morning I was in the conserva- 

 tory again, as a giant refreshed, having during the dark 

 hours, by lamplight, investigated all the sources of 

 information upon the subject, hitherto latent in my 

 library. And to save such among my readers as may 

 be equally ignorant from error in their practice, let me 

 premise that the first day when I set enthusiastically 

 about my novel task, I simply took one flower, the 

 colour of which I thought would blend happily with a 

 second selection, and showered the pollen or yellow dust 

 upon it. I was greatly wrong, however, and that perfor- 

 mance must lead to most uncertain results, being simply 

 what the imreflecting bee does ; wherefrom, while it 

 allows occasional beauties, still a multitude of hybrid 

 deformities arise. Such a kaleidoscope mode of opera- 



