80 HOW I BECAME A FALCONER. 
an instant; then he carefully lowered his whole person, and picked 
up astone. In another instant his arm would have been lifted, but 
I made so unearthly a shout from the window that he dropped the 
stone, and walked forward with a briskness utterly foreign to his 
nature, never turning his head fora moment. As a rule, people are 
very good to hawks at hack; they like to see them play, and they 
take an interest in the thing. , 
As I feared, at the opening of this chapter, would be the case, 
I have had nothing startling, and I fear little interesting, to relate 
in the way of incident and anecdote; and Iam glad to finish it. 
Besides, a thunder-storm is coming this way. It distracts one 
terribly. Let me go out on the lawn and smoke; I shall be all 
right when the first great drops come, and lie as large as florins on 
the flags. 
