62 COVERT-SIDE SKETCHES. 



of pigs. If tliis goes on, I shall hear of their eating a cow and 

 calf next." Another good story I have heard, of a very jolly 

 lawyer who acted as secretary to a hunt not a hundred miles 

 from London. He was sent in a bill for a great amount of 

 turkeys, and, on going to pay it, was asked by the servant if he 

 was a hunting gentleman. '' Yes," was the reply, when he was 

 told he might sit down in the back kitchen until her mistress 

 could attend to see him. He lighted his cigar, and did so in 

 company with some labourers who were waiting to be paid. 

 Presently, in came a dog with a turkey in his mouth, when one of 

 the labourers said, " Well done ! that's fourteen you've killed, at 

 any rate ! " On being ushered in to pay the bill, the lawyer said 

 he must call evidence on his side, and, the man being called up, 

 proved no unwilling witness, so that a very considerable item 

 was knocked off the account at once, no doubt to the chagrin 

 of the good dame, who must have regretted her incivility in 

 allowing him to sit in the back kitchen, but for which he 

 would never have come to the knowledge of how so many of 

 the turkeys went. 



