14 RAMBLES AFTER SPORT. 



pocket pistol (not forgetting old Simon), we went home. 

 If ever I slept in my life, I did tliat night. 



For the ne'xt four or five days the weather continued 

 splendid — clear black frosts and starlight nights; the 

 beginner may think it just the reverse. In thick, hazy 

 weather, especially if there is no wind — in fact, weather 

 that most amateurs would consider perfection for ap- 

 proaching birds — do as all the gunners do, and go to bed. 

 Of course, the gunners will tell you otherwise, and in such 

 weather you can get any number to go out with you for 

 a sovereign a night, but you may have the satisfaction of 

 catching a good " rousing'^ attack of ague, and hearing 

 the birds getting up all around you — two hundred yards 

 off. You can't grumble ; if you do, all the man says is, 

 ^^ Well, sir, Pve brought you up to hundreds of birds ; 

 but they're tur'ble wild, they be, to-night." But catch 

 him going out such nights ! Only try to hire a good, well- 

 known gunner on a clear, frosty, starlight night, with an 

 '*^ebb flow'' at about three in -the morning, and a four- 

 knot breeze on, and see what he'll say. The chances are 

 that, if you are a stranger, he would not take you on any 

 terms whatever. 



The weather being so favourable, I verily believe that 

 every biped in Poole who could beg, borrow, or steal a 

 gun went '' flighting" every evening ; the fowl in conse- 

 quence got so uncommonly wary that it was not worth 

 while going after them. Happening to be in the shop of 

 a well-known ironmonger (and fowler), one evening, he 

 advised me to go and look at two or three large ponds 

 about a couple of miles off. Accordingly, I despatched 

 Bill (who by this time followed me about literally like a 

 large Newfoundland dog) to report on the state of affairs. 

 That individual returned with the news that he had no 



