"DANGEROUS." 133 



line-hound or limier ; and a bit of stick was shown 

 me, the measured breadth of the boar's hind foot. 

 Oh ! but we were all immensely jolly ! And, while 

 we were waiting around the little inn in which the 

 servants called huntsmen were filling themselves out 

 like their hounds with morning provender to sustain 

 them through the day's fatigue (with the great 

 differential fact that they, the huntsmen, were to ride, 

 and not, like the hounds, to 7*?^), several gentlemen 

 whom I had not before met gathered good-humouredly 

 around me to inspect my appointments ; and they 

 called my weapon the " great gun of Sebastopol," as 

 to the locks of which all my friends were perpetually 

 in dismay. 



Every Frenchman whom I met, after looking sus- 

 piciously at the hammer of my gun tapped it with 

 his finger, and said, " Dangerous." 



" Yes sir," I always replied, " to animals." 



^^ No, no," was his rejoinder : " to animals of 

 course," with a civility of manner perfectly bewitch- 

 ing; ''but to your friends." 



*' Ah ! no, sir, not in the least." 



'' Yes, permit me ? " when he immediately put the 

 hammer down on the nipple. 



" Ah ! no," I cried, putting it back to the half- 

 cock; — "so it is safest. Besides, I always follow an 



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