194 ON SURREY HILLS. 



skull with one peck, as though cracking a nut. I 

 believe pheasants also kill and eat reptiles, and 1 

 have seen a duck catch a fine slow-worm — a deaf 

 adder as the country folks call it — and guzzle it down 

 whole. 



"I jest wish as granfeyther's time could cum 

 again,'' said my young friend, " fur I be dry. Why, 

 when this 'ere place was full swing in they days, a 

 barrel o' beer, with two horns by the side o' it, stood 

 outside the tradesmen's entrance, an' any one that 

 passed that way could hev' a drink ; an' no swipes, 

 mind ye, but the real October stingo." 



I took the hint, and relieved the man's thirst. I 

 wished to draw him out, and there is a saying in 

 woodcraft that has a wide meaning — "A dry stick 

 will not slide." 



We reach the park -gates just before the sun sinks 

 out of sight beyond the hills. Memories of days I 

 had not thought of for years come up in my mind. 

 At that point, yonder, the old stag fell. He was the 

 master-deer, and he had broken bounds, had cleared 

 the park-pales, and taken some of the others with 

 him. A lot of deer loose in a crop of roots is a 

 serious matter to the farmer. Besides what the 



