138 SHOOTING : 



Than longer would ; and tho' with such you can't 

 Kill such long shots, you will not feel that want ; 

 For in plantations all you have to fear 

 Is, that the game will mostly spring too near ; 

 That is, supposing that your dogs should be 

 In their work faultless, and from wildness free ; 

 For when they're forward, any tool's the same, 

 You're fortune's favorite if a head of game 

 You bag at all. Again, a smaller gun 

 Where rabbits plenty are, much greater fun 

 Affords ; those little scuttling creatures e'er 

 Are quicker in* their pace than any hare 

 For a short distance ; when their hole's in sight 

 You'd need be nimble,- strike them hard ; or right 

 Before your face, wounded they inly creep, 

 In peace to close their eyes in endless sleep. 



As on the winter journeys by degrees, 

 And chill November 'gins t' unrobe the trees, 

 The whistling winds, and country's aspect drear, 

 Deprive of half its charms the sylvan year ; 



