"We must part company to beat these little woods,
must we not, Tom?"
"I guess so--I'll go on with A---; his Grouse and my Dash will work well
enough, and you and Frank keep down the valley hereaways; we'll beat
that little swamp-hole, and then the open woods to the brook side, and
so along the meadows to the big bottom; you keep the hill-side coverts,
and look the little pond-holes well on Minthorne's Ridge, you'll find a
cock or two there anyhow; and beat the bushes by the wall; I guess
you'll have a bevy jumpin' up; and try, boys, do, to git 'em down the
hill into the boggy bottom, for we can use them, I tell you!" and so
they parted.
Archer and Forester, with Shot and Chase at heel, entered the little
thicket indicated, and beat it carefully, but blank; although the dogs
worked hard, and seemed as if about to make game more than once. They
crossed the road, and came into another little wood, thicker and wetter
than the first, with several springy pools, although it was almost upon
the summit of the hill. Here Harry took the left or lower hand, bidding
Frank keep near the outside at top, and full ten yards ahead of him.
"And mind, if you hear Tom shoot, or cry 'mark,' jump over into the open
field, and be all eyes, for that's their line of country into the swamp,
where we would have them.
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