124 How I Became a Sportsmax. 



shoe." In dress Ben was rather an oddity : he 

 was generally attired in a fashionably-cut but 

 well-worn cast-ofF suit of my lord's (which I 

 fancy he got for an occasional dish of trout, or 

 a few couples of snipe), and being very tall and 

 very thin, and his lordship shortish and stout, 

 the fit did not do much credit to the maker. 

 He was also generally thatched with a somewhat 

 battered white chimney-pot hat (or which had 

 been white once upon a time), with a black 

 band round it. Now, my lord's head being large 

 and round, and Ben's small and oval, the hat, 

 unless filled (as it generally was) with a large 

 red pocket-handkerchief, a rabbit net or two, a 

 box of matches, and some other unconsidered 

 trifles, had a tendency to get considerably low 

 down on the back of his neck ; and at all times, 

 even when well loaded, there was great diffi- 

 culty in keeping it in position. I don't think 

 I could have done anything, either fishing, 

 shooting, or anything else, with such an affair 

 on the top of my head ; but I suppose he had 

 got accustomed to it, for he seemed as comfort- 

 able and as well satisfied with it as if it had just 

 arrived new from its maker, and fitted him 

 exactly. 



