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trial, Sir, without understanding the principles 

 of improvement, is of no consequence. It is 

 only waste of time, and squandering ammuni- 

 tion, until you are better drilled ; and so, come 

 home along with me ! " Why, what a plague 

 am I to go home for?" To be drilled, I tell 

 you : I can do it there as well as in the field ; 

 by your own fire-side, if you please ; even as I 



now Ah me ! why do my 



thoughts, recoiling on myself, banish the flatter- 

 ing vision which had borne me hence, and 

 through some pages past had placed me at 

 your elbow, prepared to scale the mountain's 

 brow along with you, and drink the air fresh 

 from the stores of heaven, with every animating 

 circumstance of the pursuit revived before me : 

 the gay and gallant bearing of well-ordered 

 troops, the eager sweep of keen intelligence, 

 the touch of haunt, at length made out to find, 

 the cautious step, the rich variety of start and 

 stop, and all the fine sagacity displayed in foot- 

 ing up, through all his teazing efforts to elude 

 the search, some sly old rascal, who for years 

 has reigned the patriarch of the hills, on the 

 move for an escape : then, the stretch of expec- 

 tation, the alternate play of hopes and doubts, 

 until, at length, as he steals up in distance, 

 confiding to his invincible power of wing, a 

 rapid, but skilful shot arrests him on the 



