His master has found out that he is a capital finder, and in spite
of his lameness will hunt a field or beat a cover with any spaniel
in England--and, therefore, HE likes Dash. The boy has fought a
battle, in defence of his beauty, with another boy, bigger than
himself, and beat his opponent most handsomely--and, therefore, HE
likes Dash; and the maids like him, or pretend to like him, because
we do--as is the fashion of that pliant and imitative class. And
now Dash and May follow us everywhere, and are going with us to the
Shaw, as I said before--or rather to the cottage by the Shaw, to
bespeak milk and butter of our little dairy-woman, Hannah Bint--a
housewifely occupation, to which we owe some of our pleasantest
rambles.

And now we pass the sunny, dusty village street--who would have
thought, a month ago, that we should complain of sun and dust
again!--and turn the corner where the two great oaks hang so
beautifully over the clear deep pond, mixing their cool green
shadows with the bright blue sky, and the white clouds that flit
over it; and loiter at the wheeler's shop, always picturesque, with
its tools, and its work, and its materials, all so various in form,
and so harmonious in colour; and its noise, merry workmen, hammering
and singing, and making a various harmony also. The shop is rather
empty to-day, for its usual inmates are busy on the green beyond the
pond--one set building a cart, another painting a waggon. And then
we leave the village quite behind, and proceed slowly up the cool,
quiet lane, between tall hedgerows of the darkest verdure,
overshadowing banks green and fresh as an emerald.

Not so quick as I expected, though--for they are shooting here
to-day, as Dash and I have both discovered: he with great delight,