its loud ringing voice abroad. "Mark! now a third! mark, Frank!"

And as he spoke I caught the quick rush of his wing, and saw him dart
across a space, a few yards to my right. I felt my hand shake; I had not
pulled a trigger in ten months, but in a second's space I rallied. There
was an opening just before me between a stumpy thick thorn-bush which
had saved the last bird, and a dwarf cedar; it was not two yards over;
he glanced across it; he was gone, just as my barrel sent its charge
into the splintered branches.

"Beautiful!" shouted Harry, who, looking through a cross glade, saw the
bird fall, which I could not. "Beautiful shot, Frank! Do all your work
like that, and we'll get twenty couple before night!"

"Have I killed him!" answered I, half doubting if he were not quizzing
me.

"Killed him? of course you have; doubled him up completely! But look
sharp! there are more birds before me! I can hardly keep the dogs down,
now! There! there goes one--clean out of shot of me, though! Mark! mark,
Tom! Gad, how the fat dog's running!" he continued. "He sees him! Ten to
one he gets him! There he goes--bang! A long shot, and killed clean!"

"Ready!" cried I. "I'm ready, Archer!"

"Bag your bird, then. He lies under that dock leaf, at the foot of yon
red maple! That's it; you've got him. Steady now, till Tom gets loaded!"

"What did you do?" asked I. "You fired twice, I think!"

"Killed two!" he answered. "Ready, now!" and on he went, smashing away
the boughs before him, while ever and anon I heard his cheery voice,
calling or whistling to his dogs, or rousing up the tenants of some
thickets into which even he could not force his way; and I, creeping, as
best I might, among the tangled brush, now plunging half thigh deep in
holes full of tenacious mire, now blundering over the moss-covered
stubs, pressed forward, fancying every instant that the rustling of the
briers against my jacket was the flip-flap of a rising woodcock.
Suddenly, after bursting through a mass of thorns and wild-vine, which
was in truth almost impassable, I came upon a little grassy spot quite
clear of trees, and covered with the tenderest verdure, through which a
narrow rill stole silently; and as I set my first foot on it, up jumped,
with his beautiful variegated back all reddened by the sunbeams, a fine
and full-fed woodcock, with the peculiar twitter which he utters when
surprised. He had not gone ten yards, however, before my gun was at my