When the summer was nearly over, several of the children’s fathers and mothers came to stay at my mistress’s house, and the next day it was arranged that the gentlemen were to go out partridge shooting. Two of the bigger boys, who were thirteen or fourteen, and whose names were Teddy and Dick, were to be allowed to go shooting with their fathers for the first time, and a gentleman of the neighborhood, with his son Norman, who was nearly fifteen, was also to join the party.

The next morning Teddy and Dick were up before anybody else, and marched proudly about with their guns in their hands, and their game-bags slung across their shoulders, talking of all the game they were going to bring home.

“I say, Teddy,” said Dick, “when our game-bags are quite full, where shall we put the rest of the game we shall shoot?”

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The Gentlemen and Boys formed a Broad Line across the Field
"The Gentlemen and Boys formed a Broad Line across the Field” P. 46.

46

“That’s just what I was wondering,” said Teddy. “I know, we’ll put Neddy’s panniers on, and take him with us.”

I didn’t like this at all, because I knew these young sportsmen would fire at everything they saw and would be quite as likely to shoot me as they would a partridge. But there was no help for it, and so when the party assembled at the front door, I was there too, harnessed and ready.

“Bless me!” said Norman’s father, when, after a mile or two, he joined us with his son, “what’s that donkey for?”

“That’s to fetch home the young gentlemen’s game, sir,” said the keeper, touching his hat, with a grin.

The partridges rose in great numbers. I stayed prudently at the rear. The gentlemen and the boys formed a broad line across the field; shots resounded all along the line; the dogs pricked up their ears, watched to see where the game fell, and fetched it in. I kept an eye on those young boasters; I saw them shoot, and shoot, and shoot again, but they never hit anything, not even when the three of them aimed at the same partridge at once, for it only flew all the better. At the end of two hours the gentlemen’s game-bags were full, and those of the boys still empty.

“Dear me!” said one of the gentlemen, as they47 passed me on the way to a neighboring farmhouse, where they had left their dinner; “are the panniers still empty? Ah, I suppose you have stuffed all your game into your game-bags. My dear boys, if you fill them so full, they’ll burst!” and the gentleman looked at the other sportsmen and laughed.

Dick, Teddy, and Norman got very red, but they said nothing, and presently they were all seated round a capital basket of provisions under a tree,—a chicken-pie, ham, hard-boiled eggs, cheese, and cake. The boys were ravenously hungry, and ate enough to frighten the people who passed by.

“Well, boys,” said Norman’s father, “so you’ve not been very lucky. Neddy doesn’t walk as if he were over-burdened with the game you’ve shot.”

“No,” said Norman; “you see, father, we had no dogs to fetch in the partridges we shot. You had all the dogs.”

“Oh, you have shot some, have you? Why didn’t you go and fetch them in yourselves?”

“Well, father, we didn’t see them fall, and so we didn’t know where they were.”

At this all the gentlemen, and even the keepers, roared with laughter, and the boys reddened angrily.

“Well, then, boys,” said Teddy’s father, “we will stay here and rest for an hour, and you shall48 go with one of the keepers and all our dogs, and see if you have better luck this time in finding the partridges you shoot, but can’t see fall.”

“Oh, how jolly! Thanks, father. Come on, Dick; come on, Norman; now we shall have our bags............