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CHAPTER VII.

OUR CABINS.

T was too wild and wet for anything but stalking, so we took a turn at that; and I confess I went with a will at it, as there was a dog concerned and such a dog-I don't know exactly how to describe him. He was grey in colour, with a beautiful little head-a cross of a Scotch colley and a grey fox, with such an eye. Then it had the smallest stumps of ears, but with such expression in them as I never saw in even a real Skye-hill terrier-very thick, smooth coat, and a strong, though not bushy tail. He was a very good sheep and cattle dog; but his chief delight was the hope of the family, the son and heir of our host, the pet of his mother—a fragile and delicate creature-the light of the eyes of his grandmother-the most important part of the establishment, who ruled everybody and everything in it. Between this grandmother and myself a most amicable

alliance had been struck up, which might, had I remained longer in those parts, have ripened into something dangerously tender. Would you know how this attachment arose, gentle reader? Our birthdays fell on the same day; and if we both lived over the next few days, we should both of us have reached, certainly, the age of discretion, but with that difference which should always attend, at least, wellassorted unions-I should be seventy-four-the old lady threescore years and ten.

Now

the grandson was a very nice little fellow, and, even for a Norwegian child, very fat and broad, with the largest nickerbockers, and by far the broadest belt and biggest buckle I recollect having seen in this country; and I have seen many. He was, in fact, far broader than he was long. The attachment between this broad boy and the dog with the ears was not to be surpassed. His duties over, and he never neglected them, the dog and the boy were never apart. The dog had two decided passions-deer-stalking, and the broad boy. When called for stalking, by a peculiar whistle of his master, and shown a sort of leathern muzzle, with a thong attached, he left even his beloved boy, and evinced the intense pleasure he was going to enjoy, more,

if possible, by the twitching of the ear than the expression of the eye.

With this dog, then, and his master, the broad boy's father, I started, on a wild day. We had to work, for the wind round through the forest, and along the sea. The day was very stormy, with those occasional gleams of fine between the storms, that generally accompany a regular nor'-wester of the autumn equinox. We passed over more than one beautiful trout stream, that issued from some beautiful inland loch deeply imbedded in the forest, and, even on that wild day, not feeling the storm. Just at the turn of one of the streams, close to where it emptied itself into the sea, rose one of the finest Golden Eagles I ever saw; and from another point of one of the inland lochs, two Ospreys. Had I not been stalking, I think I could have got the golden eagle. But why shoot him? I did not want him, and what is the use of destroying a noble bird that does you no harm, merely to say you have killed an eagle? He may take a lamb, or two, in the course of the season: then let the shepherds kill it. Thank God, I am neither a butcher nor a sheep-farmer.

Having got, as we thought, our wind all

right, we commenced our work, and well did the dog and his master understand theirs. I had seen the sleuth-hound at work often, in days of yore, in Germany, and was used to it. My stalker walked a fair, good pace, with his dog in hand, intensely watching him. Doggie gives a twist of his nose-steady! slow instead of quick march. Doggie steadies his nose-Doggie gives a turn of his eyeDoggie gives a twitch of his ear-Doggie twitches both ears in the most expressive manner. We have got our wind a little too much on the slant, and have not made allowance for the eddies among the rocks of the valley of the forest. There go seven hinds just over that point by the large oak-a stag with them. Doggie's ears go down, and he looks round, and says, "You thundering pair of fools!" The master explains to me the mistake by signs, for I have no Norwegian. As if I did not know it, just as well as he did. I also took to dumb show, and held up two fingers, and looked wise, and pointed to where we last saw hinds, and telegraphed แ gone away," and laid my two fingers on the ground, and telegraphed "Staggie not gone entirely, perhaps may halt." It struck me he understood, and thought I was not

quite such an old idiot as I looked; but he shifted his line a little, and we got our wind all right and fair, and proceeded again.

After about half an hour's walk, our dog showed signs, and we decidedly saw horns, and to my mind could have proceeded further, but my friend insisted on lying down. Doggie was very impatient, but did not show any signs of wishing to break away. Occasionally his master put his hand over his eyes, just as in Landseer's famous picture, but he was a very docile dog. At last the horns disappeared, and we moved too, and after crawling, and walking, and dodging, entirely by the direction of the dog, we halted, having descried through the forest a something—about two hundred and fifty yards off, by a tree, which all but sheltered him, except a slanting part of his neck—a something which might be a deer, or it might not, at least my seventy-three-year-old eye could not distinguish. It is time to give up stalking at that age. I fired at what I could see, but, as I imagined, in vain. I did not get my stag, for which I did not care a button. But I enjoyed my stalk immensely, and can only say, may I live to have another in the same country. I came to one conclusion. It is no