My First Gun. 17 



the least, until one day I managed to knock 

 one over. He fell on the bank on the oppo- 

 site side ; there he lay on his back, and no 

 efforts of mine with the retriever succeeded in 

 getting him mto the stream ; but I could not 

 lose such a prize as this, and decided to leave 

 Ben to watch while I walked to a bridge about 

 a mile down stream. When I got to the spot 

 there lay my bird all right, and I shall never 

 forget the feeling of satisfaction with which I 

 carried it to '* Willum." I also managed not 

 long after to kill a wood-pigeon flying, and 

 began to feel myself getting quite a crack shot, 

 when my shooting for a time was suddenly 

 brought to a full stop. 



Whenever I wanted to use the gun I had to 

 use great caution in smuggling it in and out 

 of-^the house, and one day, having done that 

 abominably stupid and dangerous thing, taken 

 the gun into the house loaded, I hid it away 

 in the usual place — a long square cupboard 

 under an old ofBce desk, amongst old um- 

 brellas, shutter- rods, and other odds and ends ; 

 when, unfortunately, a younger brother got 

 feeling in there for something, and the gun, 

 as guns always will when they are not expected, 



