CHRISTOPHER IN HIS SPORTING JACKET 



eighteenpence a pound to his justly irritated owner, 

 on whose farm he had led a long, and not only harm- 

 less, but honourable and useful life. 



It is nearly as impossible a thing as we know, to 

 borrow a dog about the time the sun has reached his 

 meridian, on the First Day of the Partridges. Ponto 

 by this time has sneaked, unseen by human eye, into 

 his kennel, and coiled himself up into the arms of 

 "tired Nature''s sweet restorer, balmy sleep.'' A farmer 

 makes offer of a colley, who, from numbering among 

 his paternal ancestors a Spanish pointer, is quite a 

 Don in his way among the cheepers, and has been 

 known in a turnip field to stand in an attitude very 

 similar to that of setting. Luath has no objection to 

 a frolic over the fields, and plays the part of Ponto 

 to perfection. At last he catches sight of a covey 

 basking, and, leaping in upon them open-mouthed, 

 dispatches them right and left, even like the famous 

 dog Billy killing rats in the pit at Westminster. The 

 birds are bagged with a gentle remonstrance, and 

 Luath's exploit rewarded with a whang of cheese. 

 Elated by the pressure on his shoulder, the young 

 gentleman laughs at the idea of pointing; and fires 

 away, like winking, at every uprise of birds, near or 

 remote; works a miracle by bringing down three at a 

 time, that chanced, unknown to him, to be crossing, 

 and, wearied with such slaughter, lends his gun to the 

 [17] 



