l; but
reminiscences of that capital old dog are leading me away from your young
one.

191. For some days you cannot shoot to your pupil too steadily and
quietly--I had well nigh said too slowly. By being cool, calm, and
collected yourself, you will make him so. I am most unwilling to think
that you will be too severe, but I confess I have my misgivings lest you
should occasionally overlook some slight faults in the elation of a
successful right and left. Filling the game-bag must be quite secondary to
education. Never hesitate to give up any bird if its acquisition interfere
with a lesson. Let all that you secure be done according to rule, and in a
sportsmanlike manner.

[Illustration: SETTERS.--BOB.]

FOOTNOTES:

[31] As he acquires experience he will wish to rise the moment he observes
that your loading is completed. Do not allow him to move, however
correctly he may have judged the time. Let his rising be always in
obedience to signal or word. You may make a mistake in charging, or your
friend may not load as expeditiously as yourself.

[32] Never being allowed to grip conduces so much to making him
tender-mouthed, that, should he hereafter be permitted to lift his game,
it is probable he will deliver it up perfectly uninjured.

[33] I reserve this anecdote on account of its interest and applicability
to American readers.--H.W.H.

[34] In order to work in silence, I advised--XI. of 119--that the signal
to "heel" whenever the dog could observe it, should supersede the word
"dead." It might be necessary to sing out with a boat-swain's voice should
the dog be far off.

CHAPTER X.

FIRST LESSON IN AUTUMN CONTINUED. ASSISTANT.

192. It is proper you should be warned that you must not always expect a
dog will "toho" the first day as readily as I have described, though most
will, and some--especially pointers--even more quickly, if they have been
previously well-drilled, and have been bred for several generations from
parents of pure blood.

I do not say bred in and in. Breeding in and in, to a certainty, would
enfeeble their intellects as surely as their constitutions. In this way
has many a kennel been deprived of the energy and endurance so essential
in a sportsman's dog.

193. As in the present instance, it often occurs that a dog is less
inclined to dash in at first than when he is more acquainted with birds.
He is suddenly arrested by the novelty of the scent, and it is not until
he is full