gh on a different point,
and the contrast between the great Gustavus and he of Paris, was most
diverting. My accomplished friend, a charming dancer, a _beau parleur_,
a first-rate singer, who made sad havoc among the fresh and fair
gazelles of every ballroom, this tremendous _chasseur-de-salon_, I very
soon perceived, was by no means so tremendous in the stubbles;--a covey
fairly startled him, and if a hare rose between his legs he turned quite
pale.

"My good fellow," I said to him one day, seeing his extraordinary
trepidation, "if you are so staggered by a covey of partridges, what in
the world will you do when I set you face to face with a wolf or a wild
boar?"

"Oh! that is a very different affair. A wolf or a wild boar? Why, I
should kill one and eat the other, of course."

"Not so easy," I should think, "for a novice like you."

"Novice, indeed! me a novice. Oh! you are quite in error. The fact is,
these devils of birds and rabbits lie hidden, do you see, under the
grass like frogs, one never knows where; so that I never see them till
they are all but in my eyes, or cutting capers like Taglioni's under my
feet, and your dogs putting out their tongues, and staring at me."

"Why, of course they do; the intelligent brutes are ready to expire at
your awkwardness."

"Much obliged to you for the compliment. Again, you say, they turn their
tails to the right by way of telling me that I am to go to the left; and
to the left, when I am to walk to the right. Who, I ask you, is to
understand such telegraphs as these? I have not yet learned how to
converse with dogs' tails--intelligence, indeed! I believe it is all
humbug; for, when my whole soul is absorbed in watching the tips of
these very tails, a crowd of partridges jump up just in front of me,
making as much noise as if they were drummers beating the retreat. If I
am hurried and stupefied"....

"And if," I added, "you are much disposed to throw down your gun as to
fire it."

"Well! supposing I am; what is the wonder? 'Tis no fault of mine--I am
not used to partridge-shooting! I am not a wild man of the woods, like
you! I did not cut my teeth gnawing a cartridge, as you did!"

"Come, come! don't be affronted."

"Affronted? No; but you have no consideration. You're a Robin Hood, an
exterminator! if you look at one partridge, you kill four! You sleep
with your rifle, turn your game-bag into a nightcap, and shave with a
_couteau-de-chasse_!"

"May be so! but