Page:Round the Yule Log.djvu/102

78 and it isn't difficult to find his tracks and signs of his reckless shooting, for he can never wait, like other folks, till the birds have had a good start at their play."

"I dare say," said the captain, and twirled his moustaches, "it isn't the first time he is shooting in preserved grounds. But tell me, was it he who shot that goblin-hare down by Christiania, which you told me about once?"

"Oh, that hare! No, that was a professional shot from those parts called Brandte-Lars. You must know him, surely, since you are from Christiania?" said Peter, addressing himself to me.

No, I did not know him.

"What! you don't know him? Why, he lives in a small cottage under the hill just below Grefsen. I met him once in Halland, when he was out shooting with some swells from town. He is a queer fellow, but a good shot. He never misses his hare, and shoots flying just like the captain here. But about that hare the captain spoke of. He told me all about that and much more."

"'I was going out one day for old Simonsen in the Marketplace,' he said, 'to try and get him some game. We had three hounds; one of them called Rap, over which the evil spirits had no power, because he was red, you must know; the other two were pretty decent hounds. Well, it was one morning early in the spring,' said Lars, 'that I started for Linderudsœter, where I slipped Rap, and he was soon in full cry and made the hillside ring. I posted myself near a place where they had been burning charcoal, and very soon the hare came running past, close to where I was standing. I missed, and away they went again in full cry after the hare. Before long he came past the same place again; he was quite black along the back — I missed again.

"'But how is all this?" said I to myself. 'Won't the other dogs acknowledge the scent too?' for it was only Rap who was after the hare. 'No, this can't be a real hare; but I must have another look at him. Well, he came past for the third time, and I missed him again, sure enough. Both the dogs were close by me, but they didn't take the slightest notice of him. But then I took a charm and put in the gun,' he said.