46 PARTRIDGE DAY 



disposal of my second cup of coffee, I rush upstairs 

 to get ready my trusty Westley Eichards, which, 

 by the way, is a muzzle-loader, yet does not take so 

 long to load as to require a man behind me with a 

 second gun. Five minutes, and fully equipped I 

 re-enter the breakfast-room, where I am astonished 

 to find my " get-up " creates unfeigned amazement. 



" What ! ready now ! " says Tom ; " wdiat's the 

 use of being in such a hurry ? — let's do a pipe and 

 a game of billiards first." 



" Ah, by-the-by," adds Dick, " what time shall 

 we start ? Better have the trap at twelve — quite 

 early enough, eh ? " 



So Jack betakes himself to the newspaper ; I am 

 dragged off in disgust to the billiard-room ; and the 

 Squire goes off to show old Jones, who is staying 

 here, all about the gardens, &c. 



How I loathe the gardens from that moment ! — 

 how every shrub became a bugbear, every flower a 

 poisonous weed, to my jaundiced eye, as I mentally 

 abused my host for not turning out everybody sooner, 

 and doing things smarter ! My temper is rapidly 

 vanishing ; I have been beaten in two games by 

 Tom, to whom T used formerly to allow fifteen out 

 of fifty ; I am smoking a cigar of Dick's (a bad one 

 I think it, of course), when suddenly the sound of 

 wheels breaks on my ear, and rushing madly to my 



