58 How I Became a Sportsman. 



pigeons, moorhens, and an occasional wild 

 duck or widgeon, but I had as yet, of course, 

 not killed a head of game. 



I had a gun by that excellent maker, John 

 Manton ; it was rather small in the bore^ six- 

 teen, but it was a very hard hitter, and only 

 required holding straight ; so what I did not 

 kill at fair distances, might be put down to the 

 fault of the shooter, and not of the gun. 



There was a tall, active young fellow, who 

 earned a good bit of money at times at his 

 work as a sawyer, who I had found out under- 

 stood a good bit about game and shooting ; in 

 fact, he was a little bit of a poacher in a 

 harmless way, and always kept a good ferret 

 or two. I had had him out with me rabbiting 

 on several occasions, and fancied he was just 

 the man I wanted. Accordingly, I had made 

 arrangements with him to look over my 

 ground, which he was uncommonly pleased 

 and proud to do ; and I subsequently found 

 him an excellent and able coadjutor in shooting 

 and fishing. 



There was, besides, another temptation to 

 me to commence shootmg in real earnest ; 

 there was, adjoining my ground, a large com- 



