16 RAMBLES AFTER SPORT. 



feather, and ice flying about like a small deluge. We got 

 six wigeon and two ducks by our volley, besides two 

 cripples, which we allowed to go off for the present, as 

 we knew we could afterwards find them, and we expected 

 to get another shot at the birds. After waiting half an 

 hour longer, a bunch of redheads settled down, and no 

 wigeon appearing, received their "allowance'^ like the 

 others, leaving five of their number behind them. We 

 now were so thoroughly chilled through that we could 

 scarcely feel anything ; we therefore strung up our 

 thirteen birds, and turned our steps homeward. A warm 

 bath, a juicy cut from the under side of a saddle, and a 

 glass of A 1 port afterwards, put me in the finest possible 

 humour with the world. I did not get a single goose . 

 we saw plenty, but they were so wary that it was impos- 

 sible to get near them, and Dan himself only shot fifteen 

 all the season. 



The real object of my visit I had not accomplished yet, 

 which was to get Dan to take me out for a night^s punt- 

 shooting with his stanchion gun. I knew I should have 

 a job to manage it; so I said nothing about it to him for 

 the first four or five days, merely hinting to the lads that 

 I would give a trifle to go ; but as Dan was out all night 

 and we were out all day, father and sons did not see too 

 much of each other^s society. On the sixth evening, how- 

 ever, about five o'clock, I armed myself with a flat bottle 

 of the very finest old M.D., a wood pipe with a metal 

 stopper, and a plug of the best Virginia golden leaf, with 

 which credentials I hoped to succeed in working the 

 oracle. On arriving at his house I found that worthy 

 just arisen from his slumbers, and taking a cup of tea with 

 a dash of brandy in it. The walls and tables were literally 

 covered with birds : Dan had evidently got a heavy shot 



