TOM draw's visit TO PINE BROOK. 207 



drive at them with botli barrels, knocking the right hand 

 snipe down very neatly; the left hand bird, however, 

 pitched up a few feet just as I drew the trigger, and the 

 consequence was that, as I fancied, I missed him clean. 



"There! there! you stoopid, blundering, no-sich-thing — 

 there! now who talks of missing? That was the nicest, 

 prettiest, easiest shot I ever did see; and you — you shiftless 

 nigger you — you talks to me of missing !" 



"Shut up! shut up! you most incorrigible old brute!" 

 responded Harry, who had been steadily employed in mark- 

 ing the missed bird, as I deemed him. "Shut up your 

 stupid jaw! That snipe's as dead as the old cow you 

 gave us for supper, the last time we slept at Warwick, 

 though from a different cause; for the cow, Jem Flyn 

 says, died of the murrain or some other foul rotten dis- 

 order; and that small winged fellow has got a very suffi- 

 cient dose of blue pill to account for his decease ! So shut 

 up! and keep still while I take the change out of these 

 confounded dogs, or we shall have every bird we get near 

 to-day flushed like those two. Ha! Shot! Ha! Chase! 

 Down cha-a-arge — down cha-a-arge — will you? will you? 

 Down charge!" 



And for about five minutes, nothing was heard upon 

 the meadows but the resounding clang of the short heavy 

 dog-whip, the stifled grunts of Shot, and the vociferous 

 yells of Chase, under the merited and necessary chastise- 

 ment. 



"Down charge, now, will you ?" he continued, as, pocket- 

 ing his whip, he wiped his heated brow, picked up hie 

 gun, and proceeded to bag the scattered game. "There! 

 that job's done," he said, "and a job that I hate most 

 confoundedly it is — but it must he done now and then; 

 and the more severely, when necessary, the more merci- 

 fully !" 



"Now that's what I doos call a right down lie," the fat 

 man interposed. "You loves it, and you knows you do — 

 you loves to lick them poor dumb brutes, cause they can't 

 lick back, no how. You, Chase, darn you, quit mouthing 

 that there snipe — quit mouthing it, I say — else I'll cut out 

 the snoopin soul of you!" 



"So much for Tom Draw's lecture upon cruelty to ani- 

 mals — that's what I call rich!" answered Harry. "But 

 come, let us get on. I marked that bird to a yard, down 



