206 TOM draw's visit to pine brook. 



myself and Harry for being such etarnal fools as to have 

 brought him sweatin into them darned stinkin mud-holes; 

 and I, to say the truth, almost despairing of success. In 

 half an hour's walking we did, however, reach some 

 ground, which — yielding far more shelter to the birds, as 

 being meadow-land not pastured, but covered with coarse 

 rushy tussocks — seemed to promise something better in 

 the way of sport; and before we had gone many yards 

 beyond the first fence, a bird rose at long distance to Tom's 

 right, and was cut down immediately by a quick snap shot 

 of that worthy, on whose temper, and ability to shoot, the 

 firmer ground and easier walking had already begun to 

 work a miracle. 



"Who says I can't shoot now, no more than a five-year 

 old, cuss you!" he shouted, dropping the butt of his gun 

 deliberately, when skeap! skeap! startled by the near re- 

 port, two more snipe rose within five yards of him! — 

 fluttered he was assuredly, and fully did I expect to see a 

 clear miss — but he refrained, took time, cocked his gun 

 coolly, and letting the birds get twenty yards away, dropped 

 that to his right hand, killed clean with his second barrel, 

 while Harry doubled up the other in his accustomed style, 

 I not having as yet got a chance of ^ any bird. 



"Down, charge!" said Harry; "down, charge! Shot, 

 you villain!" — for the last bird had fallen wing-tipped 

 only, and was now making ineffectual attempts to rise, 

 bouncing three or four feet from the ground, with his 

 usual cry, and falling back again only to repeat his effort 

 within five minutes — this proved too much, as it seemed, 

 for the poor dog's endurance, so that, after rising once 

 or twice uneasily, and sitting down again at his master's 

 word, he drew on steadily, and began roading the running 

 bird, regardless of the score which he might have been well 

 aware he was running up against himself. During this 

 business Chase had sat pretty quiet, though I observed a 

 nervous twitching of ears, and a latent spark of the devil 

 in his keen black eye, which led me to expect some mis- 

 chief, so that I kept my gun all ready for immediate 

 action ; and well it was that I did so ; for the next moment 

 he dashed in, passing Shot, who was pointing steadily 

 enough, and picked up the bird after a trifling scuffle, the 

 result of which was that a couple more snipe were flushed 

 wild by the noise. Without a moment's hesitation I let 



