i 4 2 SPORTS AND ANECDOTES. 



sow, and always fancied birds were much nearer than 

 they were in reality. " Spara sur, padrone, spara " 

 meaning, " Fire, sir master, fire " he would whisper, 

 and when I found he was growing sulky and desperate 

 off she used to go, and very often the amount of 

 feathers, instead of ducks, used to tell their own 

 tale. 



In a double-handed punt your man is often more 

 master than man, and so much depends upon him that 

 you are obliged at times to come into his ways. I 

 remember on one occasion the aforesaid Jep being 

 so angry at my not sparaing when he told me, that 

 on landing on the beach under my house he put on 

 his coat, and said he would never go out again unless 

 I would shoot when he told me. He, however, re- 

 pented him of his obstinate stupidity, and having cried 

 " peccavi" we became the best of friends again, and 

 he remained with me as long as I lived in that part 

 of the world, working my punt, nursing the baby, 

 and making himself generally useful. 



The ducks that frequented Lago Maggiore were 

 uncommonly fine birds, which might be accounted 

 for by their flighting every evening to the rice fields 

 near Pavia, some forty or fifty miles off, and from 

 which they returned about nine o'clock in the morning, 



