Hollo!' said Mr Pickwick in his turn, seeing that his companion was

armed with a gun, and that another lay ready on the grass; 'what's

going forward?'

'Why, your friend and I,' replied the host, 'are going out rook- shooting

before breakfast. He's a very good shot, ain't he?'

'I've heard him say he's a capital one,' replied Mr Pickwick, 'but I never

saw him aim at anything.'

Well,' said the host, 'I wish he'd come. Joe - Joe!'

The fat boy, who under the exciting influence of the morning did not

appear to be more than three parts and a fraction asleep, emerged

from the house.

Go up, and call the gentleman, and tell him he'll find me and Mr

Pickwick in the rookery. Show the gentleman the way there; d'ye

hear?'

The boy departed to execute his commission; and the host, carrying

both guns like a second Robinson Crusoe, led the way from the

garden.

This is the place,' said the old gentleman, pausing after a few minutes

walking, in an avenue of trees. The information was unnecessary; for

the incessant cawing of the unconscious rooks sufficiently indicated

their whereabouts.

The old gentleman laid one gun on the ground, and loaded the other.

Here they are,' said Mr Pickwick; and, as he spoke, the forms of Mr

Tupman, Mr Snodgrass, and Mr Winkle appeared in the distance. The

fat boy, not being quite certain which gentleman he was directed to

call, had with peculiar sagacity, and to prevent the possibility of any

mistake, called them all.

'Come along,' shouted the old gentleman, addressing Mr Winkle; 'a

keen hand like you ought to have been up long ago, even to such poor

work as this.'

Mr Winkle responded with a forced smile, and took up the spare gun

with an expression of countenance which a metaphysical rook,

impressed with a foreboding of his approaching death by violence,

may be supposed to assume. It might have been keenness, but it

looked remarkably like misery. The old gentleman nodded; and two

ragged boys who had been marshalled to the spot under the direction

of the infant Lambert, forthwith commenced climbing up two of the

The Pickwick Papers