at all capable of comprehending the Why and Wherefore of a shocking
flagellation. If it is your wish that this hound should play the part of
a Tantalus, forbidden even to touch the _bonne-bouches_ with his
watering mouth, surely it is possible to restrain him by a more humane
method than Brute Force!"

At this mild reproof Mister BAGSHOT became utterly rubescent, murmuring
excuses which I did not catch; and I, perceiving that this object
lesson of kindness to animals from an Oriental had strongly affected all
the shooters, patted the hound on the forehead, consoling him with some
chocolate I carried in my cartridge sack.

We picnicked our lunch under a stone wall, and I, becoming an hilarious,
rallied my companions unmercifully upon the solemnity with which they
had marched in cautious silence, and with stern countenances as to
attack some formidable foe--and all to slaughter sundry braces of
inoffensive grouse-birds--truly an heroical sort of undertaking!

To which Hon'ble CUMMERBUND replied, with his utterance impeded by cold
pie, that I might congratulate myself on having kept my own hands
unstained by any grouse's gore.

"True, Mister Ex-Judge," I retorted, "but as you have already testified"
(here I hoisted his own petard at him rather ingeniously), "I am more an
_au fait_ in the extermination of elephants _et hoc genus omne_, and
have hitherto reserved my powder and shot for a stag or some similar
monarch of the glen. However, after lunch let us see whether I am not
competent to kill, or at least maim, one of these same grouse-fowls,
_faute de mieux_!"

A repartee which excited uproarious laughter (at Hon'ble C.'s expense)
from all the present company.

Subsequently, we were posted in a row of small fortresses constructed of
turfs, to await what is termed a "Drive," _i.e._, until some flock of
grouse-birds, exasperated to fury by the cries and blows of certain
individuals called "beaters," should attack our positions.

Hearing that the grouses on this moor were of an excessive wildness, I
was at first apprehensive that one might fly at my nose or eyes while I
was busied in defending myself against its fellows, but the keeper who
was with me assured me that such was seldom their custom.

And, indeed, such as came in my direction flew with wings so accelerated
by panic that they were invisible before I could even select one as my
target, so I was reduced to fire with considerable random. Presently the
beat