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In justice therefore to him, I must "try back" 

 a little, in order to make good the ground as we 

 go along. We are got into the very midst of 

 game; and I can not as yet admit my young 

 friend to the full honours of the field. I can 

 not trust to his measure of a cock-pheasant's 

 tail, by his yet imperfect knowledge of angles ; 

 nor to the nicer skill of adjusting, at a given 

 distance, the coincidence of two moving lines. 

 I must beg, therefore, as yet, a little while, to 

 -take him back to his rudiments among the 

 swallows. When he shall here have acquired, 

 with unshaken eye, a firm hold of the flight, 

 after the snap of the cock with a driver in, or 

 without a deviation of more than a few inches 

 from the mark, he may then, but not till then, 

 permit himself to mount his flint and load. I 

 would observe, that in order to remove all 

 apprehension of recoil, which at the instant of 

 pull upon the trigger is so liable to disturb, by 

 a kind of instinctive re-action of the shoulder, 

 the level of a young beginner, and which I 

 am afraid continues its influence with the best 

 of us longer than it ought to do (of this, 

 on the first occasion of firing a strange gun, 

 I apprehend that any man will feel himself 

 convinced), the charge should be kept down in 

 quantity to the amount of about three-fourths 

 at most. Where you can take, as here, the 



