138 
THE KAT. 
traps, and keepers, lie wsJ afraid o' notliin'. He wa' a fine 
fellow ; but, like all the rest o' the good uns, he's dead 
now!" 
Here the old man gave his head a grave and melancholy 
shake, and finished his mourDfiil sequel with a sigh, which 
made the young men look seriously down at their toes. 
After a minute's pause, I asked him if he could tell me what 
Joe's name was. " Why, * Whistling J oe,' to be sure," was 
the reply. " Yes, yes," I returned, " that was his nickname ; 
but what was his surname?" He said he never heard as 
ever he had any other name. I then inquired if he 
knew J oe's father. This question seemed a puzzler ; for, 
after taking his hat ofi" with one hand and for a time 
scratching his head with the other, he hesitatingly replied, 
" No ; he couldn't say as how he ever did know J oe's 
father — indeed, he never heard as ever he had one." 
With this piece of lucid information I thanked him, and 
•walked on ; yet felt perfectly satisfied that, according to 
the old-fashioned course of things, Joe must have had a 
father, and that that father must have had a name, and 
that that name, whatever it might be, Joe could claim as 
his birthright. 
Here the reader will excuse me if, for a few moments, I 
intrude upon his patience by giving a slight description of the 
sermulot-hunter as he is, though to describe " Whistling 
J oe " and his exploits would be to paint a picture of nearly 
the whole of the fraternity : still, as I take up the subject 
on universal and not individual principle, I may be allowed 
to describe the genuine provincial sermulot-hunter as he is 
mostly found, and then continue the history of " Whistling 
Joe." 
The provincial sermulot-hunter is a compound of three 
distinct characters — the gipsy, the gamekeeper, and the 
poacher. He possesses all the distant independence and 
dauntless bearing of the gipsy, with the knowledge of game, 
dogs, ferrets, &c., of the gamekeeper, and the quiet, midnight 
daring of the poacher. He looks upon all men alike, but 
liumbles to none ; and, being a man of secrets, he is of 
necessity a man of few w^ords ; and hence it is, from his 
mysterious bearing, coupled with so many marvellous anec- 
dotes of his wonderful exploits, that a long-standing impres- 
