id as he advised, and they walked down to the spot. In went the
spaniels, and out came a fine mallard, ten yards in front of Crawley,
and sailing away from him as steady as a ship. He could cover this
large evenly-flying mark as easily as if it were on a perch nearly, and
when he pulled trigger the duck stopped in his flight, and fell with a
heavy splash in the river, into which Scamp plunged as if it were
midsummer, and presently brought the duck to land. Crawley felt the
elation which always accompanies the first successful shot at a bird on
the wing; at any rate he had killed something, and might do well yet
when the strangeness wore off.

He had another chance at a duck a little while afterwards, but this time
the bird flew across and not straight away from him, and as he held his
gun still at the moment he got the sight on the duck and fired, of
course, since the duck had not the politeness to stop too, the charge
went about two yards behind it.

"I beg your pardon, sir," said William, "but if you takes aim like that
you will never hit 'em; 'tain't possible. You must forget all about
your gun, and only look at the bird, and pull the trigger the moment you
gets a full sight of him. The gun will follow your eye of itself,
natural."

"I know I ought to keep both eyes open," said Crawley, "but I forget."

"Well, that is best, to my thinking, though I have known some good shots
too who always shut the left eye. But whether or no the chiefest thing
is not to see that sight on your gun when you shoot, but only to look at
the bird."

They went on to another snipe patch, and soon Crawley missed again.

"Never mind, sir," said William, "it's a knack, snipe-shooting is, and
no one can catch it without practice. I've seen good partridge, aye,
and rabbit shots, miss 'em time after time, and I've knowed good snipe-
shots poor at anything else too."

At last, by trying to follow the keeper's directions, Crawley did hit a
snipe as it was flushed, but it was his only one. They were much more
plentiful than usual in that part, and lay like stones, so that they had
plenty of shooting, and William groaned in spirit over the opportunity
of sport that had been wasted on two boys. What a tip Sir Harry would
have given him in his delight if he had come out with him on such a day!

Thirty-five cartridges had Crawley burned when they turned homewards in
the afternoon, and the result was one duck, one snipe; if he had
posse