my master's never-failing shot gave the signal for
my running to fetch the foolish thing and lay it at his feet, was to my
mind the greatest enjoyment and the first object in life. And if anybody
should be inclined to despise me on that account, I would beg them to
recollect that it was the work given me to do, and I did it well. Can
everybody say as much? The causes or the consequences of it, I was not
capable of understanding. As to how the birds liked it, that never
entered my head. I thought birds were meant to be shot, and I never
supposed there was any other use in them.

The only thing that distressed me in our shooting excursions was, that
my master would sometimes allow very indifferent sportsmen to accompany
us. I whined, grumbled, and remonstrated with him to the best of my
power when I heard him give an invitation to some awkward booby who
scarcely knew how to hold his gun, but it was all in vain; my master's
only fault was his not consulting my judgment sufficiently in the choice
of his acquaintances, and many a bad day's sport we had in consequence.

Once my patience was tired beyond what any clever dog could be expected
to bear. A young gentleman had arrived at our house whom my master and
mistress treated much better than I thought he deserved. At the first
glance I penetrated into his state of mind, and should have liked to
hear my master growl, and my mistress bark at him; instead of which they
said they were glad to see him, and hoped he had had a pleasant journey.

He immediately began a long string of complaints, blaming everything he
mentioned. He was cold; there never was such weather for the time of
year; he was tired; the roads were bad, the country dull, he had been
obliged to come the last twenty miles cramped up inside a coach. Such a
shame that the railroad did not go the whole way! He was very glad to
get to his journey's end, but it seemed to be more for the sake of his
own comfort than for the pleasure of seeing his friends. His troubles
had not hurt his appetite, as I plainly perceived, for I peeped into the
room several times during dinner to watch him, and listen to his
conversation. It was all in the same style, some fault to be found with
everything. Even Lily could not put him in good humour, though she
seemed to be trying to talk about everything likely to please him. After
the failure of various attempts to find a fortunate topic, she asked if
he had had much shooting this season