notion--I don't know why. As a matter of fact, I managed to get
eighteen hundred and two, and they picked up twenty-two on the
following morning." Your obvious remark is, "By Jove!" (with a strong
emphasis on the "by") "what magnificent shooting!" After that, the
thing runs along of its own accord. With a bad shot your method is,
of course, quite different. For example:--

_Young Shot_. I must say I like the old style of walking up your birds
better than driving, especially in a country like this. I never saw
such difficult birds as we had this morning. You seemed to have the
worst of the luck everywhere.

_Bad Shot_. Yes--they didn't come my way much. But I don't get much
practice at this kind of thing--and a man's no good without practice.

_Y.S._ That was a deuced long shot, all the same, that you polished
off in the last drive. When I saw him coming at about a hundred miles
an hour, I thanked my stars he wasn't my bird. What a thump he fell!

_B.S._ Oh, he was a fairly easy shot, though a bit far off. I daresay
I should do well enough if I only got more shooting. I'm not shooting
with my own gun, though. It's one of my brother's, and it's rather
short in the stock for me.

That starts you comfortably with the Bad Shot. You soothe his ruffled
vanity, and give him a better appetite for lunch.

Now, besides the Good Shot, and the Bad Shot--the two extremes, as
it were, of the line of shooters--you might subdivide your sportsmen
further into--