256 A Sportsman at Large 



help. He soon returned from the mansion with Bedford 

 and his wife, Flora, bearing between them hot drinks and 

 blankets. 



The poor sufferer was wrapped in the latter ; carried 

 between us to Graeme's Hall, and placed in the charge of her 

 aunt. After a hot bath and a good night's rest she came 

 down to breakfast next morning as fresh a? a daisy. Glory 

 be ! But, believe me, nothing in this world would induce her 

 to set foot in an open sea boat again. 



Dogs have strange ways. I verily believe that they possess 

 some intuition of danger besetting those they love. Bedford 

 told me that, during our absence on this unlucky expedition, 

 Sweep had been obviously uneasy and distressed, and that 

 about the time when danger was most imminent to us, he had 

 raised his head and given voice to dismal howls of pent-up 

 misery. 



A .propos this same Sweep. I forgot to recount a little 

 story which illustrates the reasoning powers of the canine race 

 in general, and of this member of the tribe in particular. 



One day, when shooting on a marsh which lay remote from 

 the Hall, a single snipe rose, rather wild, affording me a very 

 long shot. I dropped it with a broken wing ; whereupon a 

 mallard sprang from a bunch of reeds which fringed an adjacent 

 pool. This bird also was brought down in similar plight, and 

 fell with a resounding splash in the middle of the water. 

 Sweep immediately went to retrieve it, and succeeded in 

 doing so ; but only after an exciting chase ; for the duck 

 kept diving, and each time it did so, the dog had to wait until 

 its head popped up again before he could get on terms. It 

 was not until the bird was able to hold breath under water 

 no longer, that my retriever's jaws closed upon it. 



As he was bringing it to hand, his eyes fell on the winged 

 snipe, which kept springing from the ground in futile efforts 

 at flight. Releasing the mallard, Sweep traversed the hundred 

 yards or so which lay between the two, and laid hold of the 

 long-bill. 



But the duck, as soon as it was released, began to flop back 

 towards the rushes, so the retriever had to drop the snipe in 

 order to arrest the other bird's progress. Then this farce 



