66 How I Became a Sportsman. 



my bird with the first barrel. E — n took it all 

 as if he was thoroughly used to do the same 

 thing, and as imperturbable as Charles Mat- 

 thews in ' Cool as a Cucumber,' mounted his 

 pony again. Not long afterwards he said, " I 

 have so much to do, I think I shall go in ; 

 you go on, and I hope you will have good 

 sport ; and, ' Martin,' take them over all the 

 best of the ground," and away he went. 



When he departed, Martin the keeper smiled, 

 and told us his master would never have got off 

 his pony if I had not missed ; but would now 

 be in grand feather for a week, as he never saw 

 him do such a thing before. He said he very 

 seldom goes out by himself, and when he does 

 he never kills anything; but when he goes out 

 with other gentlemen, if he manages to knock 

 over a bird fairly he goes home. A wise man 

 too ; as any one seeing him perform, as we did, 

 would have said he was a crack shot. 



We had a very good day, wound up with an 

 excellent dinner, finished by the best hare I 

 ever tasted ; and I will give my readers his 

 receipt for cooking one at the end of this 

 chapter. He made no allusion to his shooting, 

 not knowing the keeper had split, leaving us 



J 



