70 DAYS OF DEER-STALKING. 



" Ah, this is the best deer we have killed this year, Peter. 

 I have not seen the like of him since the great monster I 

 felled on the Elrieh, when you put two charges of powder 

 and two balls in my rifle ; and the man who cuts up the 

 deer so beautifully, at Blair, said he had a hole in his 

 shoulder large enough to put his fist in." 



" Will ye never forget that, then ? But yer honour never 

 held better, and sure oughten'd a big deer to hae a big 

 load!" 



" Admirably reasoned; I had forgotten that, Peter. Now, 

 Lightfoot, what think you of deer-stalking?" 



" Why, now we have got the deer, I must own it is most 

 glorious sport ; from the time we began imitating all the 

 reptiles on the face of the earth, and bowing like the Per- 

 sian, my heart was throbbing with excitement. It appeared 

 as if all our craft and caution was to lead to some great end 

 an end not easily attained ; which, you know, heightens 

 the pleasure of success : and then the bay was sublime 

 positively awful ! To be plain with you, however, I did 

 not much relish gliding up the burn, trout fashion, not 

 being gifted with fins. And now I am more than ever 

 averse from Demaillet's theory, who conceived the globe to 

 have been covered with water for many thousand years, 

 and that, when the waters retreated, the inhabitants of the 

 sea became terrestrial animals, and that man himself began 

 his career as a fish." 



" Well, we will have a good round of whiskey, and a 

 health to the lord of the forest, who will smile when he 

 sees this fine fellow. You got on most capitally." 



" Why, yes, yes, pretty well over the moss-hags ; but that 

 confounded hill distressed me exceedingly; that, and the 

 grouse, mutton-chops, eggs, and rolls, venison pasty, etc., 

 drew hard upon my wind, and I should not have been sorry 

 to have gone all fours again. But I rallied capitally did 

 not I?" 



" Rallied ! why, I never saw you beat ; and, to say the 

 truth, these mountains are not so formidable as they appear 

 to be. I have been more oppressed in walking over flats, 

 mashing turnips with my feet, after those little birds called 

 partridges, where the action of the muscles never changes, 



