TOM draw's visit TO PINE BROOK. 201 



"but you knows pretty nigh as well as I can tell you.' 



"Bettor, John, better, if I knew exactly how the ground 

 was — but that will be the driest, won't it?" 



"Savtain," replied the other, "but we'll get work enough 

 without beating the ground hereaways before the house; 

 we'll keep that to begin upon to-morrow, and so follow 

 up the big meadow, and to Loises, and all along under 

 the widow Mulford's, if it holds dry to-day; and some- 

 how now I kind o' guess it will. There'll be a heap o' 

 birds there by to-mofrow — they were a-flyn' cur'ous, now, 

 last night, I tell you." 



"Well, then, let us be moving. Where's the game- 

 bag, Timothy ? give it to John ! Is the brandy bottle in 

 it, and the luncheon ? hey ?" 



"Ay, ay! Sur!" answered Tim; "t' brandy 's t' big 

 wicker bottle, wi' t' tin cup — and soom cauld pork and 

 crackers 'i 't gam bag — and a spare horn of powder, wi' 

 a pund in 't. Here, tak it, John Van Dyne, and mooch 

 good may't do ye — and — baud a bit, man! here's t' dooble 

 shot belt, sling it across your shoulder, and awa wi' yoii." 



Everything being now prepared, and having ordered din- 

 ner to be in readiness at seven, we lighted our cigars and 

 started; Harry, with the two setters trotting steadily at 

 his heels, and his gim on his shoulder, leading the way at 

 a step that would have cleared above five miles an hour, 

 I following at my best pace, Tom Draw puffling and blow- 

 ing like a grampus in shoal water, and John Van Dyne 

 swinging along at a queer loping trot behind me. We 

 crossed the bridges and the causeway by which we had 

 arrived the previous night, passed through the toll-gate, 

 and, turning short to the right hand, followed a narrow 

 sandy lane for some three quarters of a mile, till it turned 

 ofF abruptly to the left, crossing a muddy streamlet by a 

 small wooden bridge. Here Harry paused, flung the 

 stump of his cheroot into the ditch, and dropping the butt 

 of his gun, began very quietly to load, I following his 

 example without saying a word. 



"Here we are, Frank," said he ; "this long stripe of rushy 

 fields, on both sides of the ditch, is what they call the 

 long meadow, and rare sport have I had on it in my day, 

 but I'm afraid it's too wet now — we'll soon see, though," 

 and he strode across the fence, and waved the dogs off to 

 the right and left. "You take the right hand, Frank ; and 



