74, AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING. 
pierced the heart of my merry companion, judging from 
her words and manner. 
Having inferentially learned his position as a wooer in 
the course of ten or fifteen minutes, further information 
in that line was stopped by Miss Lucy’s abrupt ‘‘ Here 
we are! This is a splendid place for chickens. They 
rest here in the morning, and, when flushed, go for those 
cornfields on the ridge, where we will find them by-and- 
by, as soon as the sun gets hot.” I alighted on hearing 
this, and the dogs being ordered out, the moment they 
touched the ground they commenced working in the 
most vigorous manner. They ranged wide, but lifted 
their heads every few moments and looked towards us, 
as if they were desirous of knowing what we thought of 
their movements, or whether we wished to give them 
fresh instructions. 
A simple wave of the hand from their fair mistress 
sent them in whatever direction she wished, but, as they 
seemed to be working a blank, they were recalled by the 
whistle in about fifteen minutes, and sent to beat up a 
long, low, rolling ridge, or hillock, where the grass was 
rather short, owing to the profusion of creeping bushes. 
They had scarcely entered that quarter before they be- 
came wildly excited, and running rapidly onward, with 
noses well in the air, they came to such a sudden halt 
that they were almost bent into a semicircle, while their 
tails became as rigid as pokers, and their heads as mo- 
tionless as lifeless skulls. I approached them to look for 
the birds, but, not seeing any, I advanced a pace or two 
further, when a whole brood rose within four or five 
yards of me, and so abruptly, that I took no aim hardly; 
yet I brought down two. The reports of my gun had 
hardly ceased when two more were heard, and on glanc- 
ing round I saw that Miss Lucy had used the light 
weapon she carried in front of her in the phaeton, and 
bagged a bird, while she wounded another that escaped. 
