WARWICK WOODLANDS. 121 



two clean, both within thirty paces, and then covered the 

 third bird with his empty barrels — but, though no shot 

 could follow from that quarter, he was not to escape scot 

 free, for wheeling short to the left hand, and flying high, 

 he crossed the Commodore in easy distance, and afterward 

 gave Forester a chance. 



"Try him, Frank," halloaed Archer — and "It's no use!" 



cried A , almost together, just as he raised his gun, 



and levelled it a good two feet before the quail. 



But it was use, and Harry's practised eye had judged 

 the distance more correctly than the short sight of the 

 Commodore permitted — the bird quailed instantly as the 

 shot struck, but flew on notwithstanding, slanting down 

 wind, however, towards the ground, and falling on the 

 hill-side at a full hundred yards. 



"We shall not get him," Forester exclaimed; "and I am 

 sorry for it, since it was a good shot." 



"A right good shot," responded Harry, "and we shall 

 get him. He fell quite dead; I saw him bounce up, like a 



ball, when he struck the hard ground. But A 's second 



bird is only wing-tipped, and I don't think we shall get 

 him; for the ground where he fell is very tussocky and 

 full of grass, and if he creeps in, as they mostly will do, 

 into some hole in the bog-ground, it is ten to pne against 

 the best dog in America !" 



And so it came to pass, for they did bag Forester's, and 

 all the other quail except the Commodore's, which, though 

 the dogs trailed him well, and worked like Trojans, they 

 could not for their lives make out. 



After this little rally they went down to the alders by 

 the stream-side, and had enough to do, till it was growing 

 rapidly too dark to shoot — for the woodcock were very 

 plentiful — it was sweet ground, too, not for feeding only, 

 but for lying, and that, as Harry pointed out, is a great 

 thing in the autumn. 



The grass was short and still rich under foot, although 

 it froze hard every night; but all along the brook's marge 

 there were many small oozy bubbling springlets, which it 

 required a stinging night to congeal; and round these the 

 ground was poached up by the cattle, and laid bare in 

 spots of deep, soft, black loam ; and the innumerable chalk- 

 ings told the experienced eye at half a glance, that, where 



