Part 22 (1/2)
”Ah! did it hurt him?”
”Hurt him some--skeart him considerable, though. I guess he's quit shootin' pretty much. But come--here we be, boys. I'll keep along the outside, where the walkin's good. You git next me, and Archer next with the dogs, and A--- inside of all. Keep right close to the cedars, A---; all the birds 'at you flushes will come stret out this aways. They never flies into the cedar swamp. Archer, how does the ground look?”
”I never saw it look so well, Tom. There is not near so much water as usual, and yet the bottom is all quite moist and soft.”
”Then we'll get c.o.c.k for sartain.”
”By George!” cried A--- ”the ground is like a honey-comb, with their borings; and as white in places with their droppings, as if there had been a snow fall!”
”Are they fresh droppings, A---?”
”Mark! Ah! Grouse! Grouse! for shame. There he is down. Do you see him, Harry?”
”Ay! ay! Did Grouse flush him?”
”Deliberately, at fifty yards off. I must lick him.”
”Pray do; and that mercifully.”
”And that soundly,” suggested Frank, as an improvement.
”Soundly is mercifully,” said Harry, ”because one good flogging settles the business; whereas twenty slight ones only hara.s.s a dog, and do nothing in the way of correction or prevention.”
”True, oh king” said Frank, laughing. ”Now let us go on; for, as the bellowing of that brute is over, I suppose 'chastis.e.m.e.nt has hidden her head.'”