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Rh hear it just striking seven. Meantime here’s a few braces of my balls for you,” and so saying he limped off. Filled with astonishment William tryed a second of the balls, and again he hit an object at an inaccessible distance: he then charged with his ordinary balls, and missed the broadest and most obvious mark. On this second trial, he determined to go after the old soldier; but the soldier had disappeared in the depths of the forest; and William was obliged to console himself with the prospect of meeting him again.

In the forest-house all was pleasure when William returned, as formerly, with a load of venison, and gave practical evidence to old Bertram that he was still the same marksman he had first shewn himself in his noviciate. He should now have told the reason of his late ill-luck, and what course he had taken to remove it: but, without exactly knowing why, he shrank from telling of the inevitable balls, and laid the