EARLY RECOLLECTIONS. 13 



who, I soon learnt, had been watching the men 

 all along. I told him what I had seen and done 

 and he commended me for my sharpness. I 

 relate this because it made me take a liking for 

 keepering. 



A few months afterwards I left the British 

 School and was put to look after the pheasants 

 during the breeding season, and this I continued 

 to do for some few years. I used to keep my 

 watch in an old tilted cart, armed with a light 

 single-barrelled gun belonging to my father, and 

 having, for company, a poor, worn-out re- 

 triever dog. One day, I saw a hawk pounce 

 down on one of the young pheasants, taking it 

 up in his talons, and flying away with it. I 

 raised my gun, and fired ; the hawk dropped 

 to the ground, dead, but still gripping its prey. 

 Wonderful to relate the pheasant was unhurt, 

 and immediately ran off to the coop, to its 

 mother. Mr. John Fuller had the hawk stuffed, 

 and it can be seen, to this day, at German 

 House, where Mr. Stratton Fuller now resides ; 

 the people there, moreover, will tell you the 

 same tale as I have told about it. 



