We then proceeded to the wagon, took a good pull of
water from a beautiful clear spring by the road-side, properly qualified
with whiskey, and rattled on about one mile farther to the second
bridge. Here we again got out.
"Now, Tim," said Harry. "mark me well! Drive gently to the old barrack
yonder under the west-end of that wood-side, unhitch the horses and tie
them in the shade; you can give them a bite of meadow hay at the same
time; and then get luncheon ready. We shall be with you by two o'clock
at farthest."
"Ay, ay, sur!"
And off he drove at a steady pace, while we, striking into the meadow,
to the left hand of the road, went along getting sport such as I never
beheld, or even dreamed of before. For about five hundred yards in width
from the stream, the ground was soft and miry to the depth of some four
inches, with long sword-grass quite knee-deep, and at every fifty yards
a bunch of willows or swamp alders. In every clump of bushes we found
from three to five birds, and as the shooting was for the most part very
open, we rendered on the whole a good account of them. The dogs
throughout behaved superbly, and Tom was altogether frantic with the
excitement of the sport.
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