HOW I BECAME A SPORTSxMAN. 



CHAPTER I. 



MY FIRST GUN. 



" Soon from the uplifted tube the mimic thunder bursts, the 

 leaden death overtakes him, and with many a giddy 

 whirl to earth he falls." — SOMERVILLE. 



An idea is sometimes forced upon me that I 

 must have been born a sportsman, or at least 

 wiA very strong sporting instincts, which very 

 soon began to show and gradually develop 

 themselves ; or perhaps I might have imbibed 

 them in my pap. Horses and dogs were my 

 first loves. I have often heard my poor mother 

 say, that after trying for hours to rock me to 

 sleep, she would look in the cradle (the now 

 fashionable herceaunette was not then invented) 

 when she thought I was gone off, and there, 



