shed. Let it not be thought, therefore, that the
morals of our little hero were affected by his father's profession, for
such was not the case.

Having entered into this necessary explanation, we will now proceed. No
band of North American Indians could have observed a better trail than
that kept by our little party. Rushbrook walked first, followed by our
hero and the dog Mum. Not a word was spoken; they continued their route
over grass-lands and ploughed fields, keeping in the shade of the
hedgerows: if Rushbrook stopped for a while to reconnoitre, so did Joey,
and so did Mum at their relative distances, until the march was resumed.
For three miles and a half did they thus continue, until they arrived
at a thick cover. The wind whistled through the branches of the bare
trees, chiefly oak and ash; the cold, damp fog was now stationary, and
shrouded them as they proceeded cautiously by the beaten track in the
cover, until they had passed through it, and arrived on the other side,
where the cottage of a gamekeeper was situated. A feeble light was
burning, and shone through the diamond-paned windows.

Rushbrook walked out clear of the cover, and held up his hand to
ascertain precisely the direction of the wind. Having satisfied
himself; he retreated into the cover, in a direction so as to be exactly
to leeward of the keeper's house, that the noise of the report of his
gun might not be heard. Having cleared the hedge, he lowered his gun,
so as to bring the barrel within two or three inches of the ground, and
walked slowly and cautiously through the brushwood, followed, as before,
by Joey and Mum. After about a quarter of a mile's walk, a rattling of
metal was heard, and they stopped short; it was the barrel of the
fowling-piece which had brushed one of the wires attached to a
spring-gun, set for the benefit of poachers. Rushbrook lifted up his
left hand, as a sign to Joey not to move; and following the wire, by
continually rattling his barrel against it, he eventually arrived at the
gun itself; opened the pan, threw out all the priming, leaving it with
the pan open, so that it could not go off; in case they fell in with
another of the wires. Rushbrook then proceeded to business, for he well
knew that the gun would be set where the pheasants were most accustomed
to roost; he put a small charge of powder in his fowling-piece, that,
being so near, he might not shatter the birds, and because the noise of
the report