while we ate, and Ben's master smoked his 

 pipe with quiet confidence. At last, after a 

 cjf/te O/'BeecA full hour, he whacked his pipe on his boot 

 \T<a'fr/dge heel and rose to reach for his gun. That 

 ^1^ meant death for the grouse ; but I owed him 



too much of keen enjoyment to see him cut 

 down in swift flight. In the moment that 

 the master's back was turned I hurled a knot 

 at the tangle of brakes. The grouse burst 

 away, and Old Ben, shaken out of his trance 

 by the whirr of wings, dropped obediently 

 to the charge and turned his head to say 

 reproachfully with his eyes : " What in the 

 world is the matter with you back there — 

 did n't I hold him long enough } '" 



The old beech partridge was a bird of a 

 different mind. No dog ever stood him for 

 more than a second ; he had learned too well 

 what the thing meant. The moment he 

 heard the patter of a dog's feet on leaves he 

 would run rapidly, and skulk and hide and 

 run again, keeping dog and hunter on the 

 move till he found the cover he wanted, — 

 thick trees, or a tangle of wild grapevines, 

 — when he would burst out on the farther 



