one shot
which was effectual. A young rabbit sat on the top of a mound looking
at him with an air of impudence which is sometimes associated with
extreme youth. A fat old kinsman--or woman--was seated in a hollow some
distance farther on. MacRummle fired at the young one, missed it, and
shot the kinsman through the heart. The disappointment of the old man
when he failed to find the young one, and his joy on discovering the
kinsman, we leave to the reader's imagination.

Thus he went on, occasionally securing something for the pot,
continually alarming the whole rabbit fraternity, and disgusting the
eagle, which watched him from a safe distance in the ambient atmosphere
above.

By degrees he worked his way along till he came to the neighbourhood of
the place where poor John Barret sat in meditative dejection. Although
near, however, the two friends could neither see nor get at each other,
being separated by an impassable gulf--the one being in a crevice, as we
have said, not far from the foot of the cliff, the other hidden among
the crags near the summit. Thus it came to pass that although Barret
knew of MacRummle's position by his noise, the latter was quite ignorant
of the presence of the former.

"This is horrible!" muttered the youth in his crevice below.

"Now I call this charming!" exclaimed the old man on his perch above.

Such is life--viewed from different standpoints! Ay, and correctly
estimated, too, according to these different standpoints; for the old
man saw only the sunny surrounding of the Present, while the young one
gazed into the gloomy wreck of the Future.

Being somewhat fatigued, MacRummle betook himself to a sequestered ledge
among the cliffs, and sat down under a shrub to rest. It chanced to be
a well concealed spot. He remained quietly there for a considerable
time, discussing with himself the relative advantages of fishing and
shooting. It is probable that his sudden disappearance and his
prolonged absence induced the eagle to imagine that he had gone away,
for that watchful bird, after several circlings on outstretched and
apparently motionless wings, made a magnificent swoop downwards, and
again resumed its floating action in the lower strata of its atmospheric
world. There it devoted its exclusive attention to the young man, whose
position was clearly exposed to its view.

As he sat there in gloomy thought, Barret chanced to raise his eyes, and
observed the bird high above