we got into the heavy thicket with much tangled grass, wherein
we flushed a bevy, but they all took to tree, and we made very little of
them; and here Tom Draw began to blow and labor; the covert was too
thick, the bottom too deep and unsteady for him.

Archer perceiving this, sent him at once to the outside; and three
times, as we went along, ourselves moving nothing, we heard the round
reports of his large calibre. "A bird at every shot, I'd stake my life,"
said Harry, "he never misses cross shots in the open;" at the same
instant, a tremendous rush of wings burst from the heaviest thicket:
"Mark! partridge! partridge!" and as I caught a glimpse of a dozen large
birds fluttering up, one close upon the other, and darting away as
straight and nearly as fast as bullets, through the dense branches of a
cedar brake, I saw the flashes of both Harry's barrels, almost
simultaneously discharged, and at the same time over went the objects of
his aim; but ere I could get up my gun the rest were out of sight. "You
must shoot, Frank, like lightning, to kill these beggars; they are the
ruffed grouse, though they call them partridge here: see! are they not
fine fellows?"

Another hour's beating, in which we still kept picking up, from time to
time, some scattering birds, brought us to the spring head, where we
found Tim with luncheon ready, and our fat friend reposing at his side,
with two more grouse, and a rabbit which he had bagged along the
covert's edge. Cool was the Star champagne; and capital was the cold
fowl and Cheshire cheese; and most delicious was the repose that
followed, enlivened with gay wit and free good humor, soothed by the
fragrance of the exquisite cheroots, moistened by the last drops of the
Ferintosh qualified by the crystal waters of the spring. After an hour's
rest, we counted up our spoil; four ruffed grouse, nineteen woodcocks,
with ten brace and a half of quail beside the bunny, made up our score--
done comfortably in four hours.

"Now we have finished for to-day with quail," said Archer, "but we'll
get full ten couple more of woodcock; come, let us be stirring; hang up
your game-bag in the tree, and tie the setters to the fence; I want you
in with me to beat, Tim; you two chaps must both keep the outside--you
all the time, Tom; you, Frank, till you get to that tall
thunder-shivered ash tree; turn in there, and follow up the margin of a
wide slank you will see; but be careful, the mud is very deep, and