50 WARWICK WOODLANDS. 



Before we had been in an hour, Harry once again roused 

 us out. All had been, during our absence, fully prepared 

 by the indefatigable Tim; who, as the day before, ac- 

 coutred with spare shot and lots of provender, seemed to 

 grudge us each morsel that we ate, so eager was he to see 

 us take the field in season. 



Off we went then; bvit what boots it to repeat a thrice 

 told tale; suffice it, that the dogs worked as well as dogs 

 can work; that birds were plentiful, and lying good; that 

 we fagged hard, and shot on the whole passably, so that by 

 sunset we had exceeded Harry's forty brace by fifteen 

 birds, and got beside nine couple and a half of woodcock ; 

 which we found, most unexpectedly, basking themselves 

 in the open meadow, along the grassy banks of a small 

 rill, without a bush or tree within five hundred yards of 

 them. 



Evening had closed before we reached the well known 

 tavernstand, and the merry blaze of the fire, and many 

 candles, showed us, while yet far distant, that due prepa- 

 rations were in course for our entertainment. 



"What have we heref cried Harry, as we reached the 

 door — "Race horses ? Why, Tom, by heaven ! we've got 

 the Flying Dutchman here again ; now for a night of it." 



And so in truth it was, a most wet, and most jovial 

 one, seasoned with no small wit; but of that, more anon. 



DAY THE FOURTH. 



When we had entered Tom's hospitable dwelling, and 

 delivered over our guns to be duly cleaned, and the dogs to 

 be suppered, by Tim Matlock, I passed through the par- 

 lor, on my way to my own crib, where T found Archer in 

 close confabulation with a tall rawboned Dutchman, with 

 a keen freckled face, small 'cute gray eyes, looking sus- 

 piciously about from under the shade of a pair of strag- 

 gling sandy eyebrows, small reddish whiskers, and a head 

 of carroty hair as rough and tangled as a fox's back. 



His aspect was a wondrous mixture of sneakingness and 

 smartness, and his expression did most villainously belie 

 him^ if he were not as sharp a customer as ever wagged 

 an elbow, or betted on a horse-race. 



