very hungry, I put my nose in at the kitchen door while my mistress was cooking, and was hailed with "get out, you brute! or I'll serve you as I have the rest of the stinking vermin!!" I took the hint, gentle as it was, and ran off, as I have sometimes heard the boys metaphorically express it, "with a flea in my ear.”

I had now got into the hands of one of those warmhearted, old fashioned sportsmen, whom it is not every dog's good fortune to be owned by; whose knowledge of our species enabled him soon to discover my superiority over all the rest of his pack. He became very proud of my appearance, my docility, and hunting qualities : took me with him into all companies, and made many bets, which were never determined, respecting my multifarious abilities, natural and acquired. I am not aware that this excessive partiality was of any great benefit to me; at any rate, I know it subjected me to some inconveniences; and occasionally, when reposing under a chair in a tavern, to sundry sly kicks from the person occupying the seat, not from any dislike to me individually, but because he happened, perhaps, to have a cowardly antipathy to dogs in general.

My present master was one of the best natured men in the world, and would lend both his dog and gun to almost any person who had the modest assurance to solicit such a loan. In accordance with this practice he one day suffered me to go out with a young man who was totally ignorant of the art of hunting with dogs, and who, because I did not understand his cockney gibberish, took it into his head, while I was endeavouring to lead him up to a bevy of quails running out of a stubble

field in a swamp hard by, to shoot me! Upon which I immediately cleared out, and left him to make up a story that might satisfy my owner: while I took a range ad libitum in search of new quarters. Towards nightfall I approached a farm house, and ventured into the kitchen, where I was welcomed by the farmer himself, who was something of a sportsman, treated to a bowl of milk, and a few crusts; and then led into the barn, and shut up for the night. A day or two after two gentlemen on a gunning excursion happening to stop at this house, one of them bought me of the farmer, with an understanding that if I was claimed by my former master, the money paid for me was to be returned. I was now brought back to New York, and upon the whole well treated for a few weeks by my new possessor; notwithstanding which I shall never forget one act of his towards me. My master, although taking him altogether he was a good enough kind of man, was extremely irritable; and subject to fits of moody abstraction, in which he would be frequently absorbed for half an hour or

more.

If disturbed on these occcasions, his countenance always expressed the most violent rage; which, however, he could easily controul when necessary. He had taught me to take off his hat, carry it round the room, and then return it to him; and always appeared much pleased with my performance. Upon the occasion alluded to, he was in one of those reveries, and appeared intensely engaged in the contemplation of some painful subject. His brow was contracted, his eyes fixed on the ground, and I thought he was unhappy. With the simple intention of diverting his mind from the

cause of his uneasiness, I gently advanced towards him, placed my fore paws lightly on his knee, and had the rim of his hat in my mouth before he became conscious of the existence of external objects; when, suddenly springing from his seat, he hurled me violently from him, and gave me such a kick in the groin as compelled me to retreat and yelp out ki! hi! for many minutes. I never volunteered to take his hat off again.

The occupation of my master prevented his hunting more than once or twice in a season, and he very shortly after I came into his possession made a present of me, as a token of his esteem, to a gentleman with whom I am now living, and under whose hospitable roof I hope to die.

He is a first rate sportsman, substantially rich, treats me as a dog ought to be treated, and no better. I have good straw to lie on; plenty of wholesome food, and when taken out for hunting, am carried in a wagon so large, that he is under no necessity of placing his feet on my toes or my tail, as has often been the case in the little vehicles of my former masters. He hunts me fairly, corrects me mildly, and never praises me to his friends beyond my deserts. This is what I like: for the modesty even of a dog is sometimes put to the blush, by the extravagant encomiums passed on them by their vainboasting owners; who, by-the-bye, indulge in flourishes of this sort more to enhance their own importance in owning such valuable property, than from any real regard to the animal they are praising.

I could much enlarge this true history of my life, but am of opinion that my brethren, for whose instruction I have written, may be apt to consider it sufficient

ly prolix already. Besides which I feel the infirmities of age throughout my frame; and begin to look forward to that great change which affects alike the dog and his master, and levels all distinctions between "mongrel, puppy, whelp and hound, and cur of low degree.”

In short, I m now neaarly worn out, but my kind owner has not yet knocked me on the head; and I have little else to do beside moralising on past events, or reflecting on the variety of incidents that may occur in the life of a

SETTER DOG."

THE SPORTSMAN'S CHAMBER.

This room, which is exclusively my own,
And which to every other I prefer,

Is furnished for convenience, not for show;
Plain, but yet clean—retired, yet o'erlooking
Villages, and woods, and fields, and rivers;
And giving to the eye a distant view

Of one great town, whose constant bustle, and
Ne'er ceasing sounds, disturb not meditation
Where I write. The firm floor is cover'd
With a cloth which vies with April's verdant
Meads, when the blithe robin has begun to
Carol in the woods. Near to the fire-place
Is a mat, on which my faithful Pointer
Takes repose when home returned and weary

From the chase. There, by the closet, stands my Double-barrel instrument of death, well

Protected in its leathern coat. Not far

From that, on hooks projecting from the
Whiten❜d wall, game-bags and shot-belts are
Suspended. Hard by my wardrobe is;
And over it, in not the most methodical
Array, of books a small but choice collection.
These serve to while away the hours when
Sickness or foul weather keep me home.
Snug in a corner is my cot, friendly
Receiver of my jaded frame, when from
The fields I come laden with spoils. A desk,
A single table, two arm-chairs, (one for
A friend,) complete the scanty list of goods
And chattels that my room contains. And yet
For unpretending bachelor like me

These well suffice. As simple quite, the
Ornamental part. Over the mantel-

Piece a portrait of my mother hangs, sketch'd
By myself in boyhood, long ere the cares
Of life had rais'd one wrinkle on my brow;
Her full, dark eye is fixed on me in
Tenderness, and her scarcely open mouth
Is smiling, perhaps at the success of
This my juvenile aspiring. Around
The walls, promiscuously arranged, are
Some few sporting pictures, painted in
By-gone days, when shooting and the chase were

follow'd by a race of men such as the
Fields and woods are not soon destined to