AN APRIL HIKE 37 



the horizon and slanted across the flat, it lighted 

 up a picture which alone would have repaid the 

 long thirty-mile tramp. For in and around the 

 blue pond-hole, a quarter of a mile distant, on 

 the bare pasture, several hundred waveys were 

 sitting, their glistening masses, whiter than any 

 snow, glinting most w^ondrously in the sharp 

 morning light. But soon they rose in a seething, 

 clamorous assemblage, and quickly stringing out 

 in order, went westward. 



As the end of the line passed the hills, the 

 kodak clicked; then I shouldered my traps and 

 struck off again. In order to carry out my in- 

 tention of circling the lake, it was necessary now 

 to go down to the shore and follow it that I 

 might escape the sloughs that flanked it for 

 many miles. On account of being so w^armly 

 sheltered, these sloughs were all free of ice and 

 all astir with the hardier members of the duck 

 tribe. The steady, half-musical jabber of their 

 voices arose on every side, for all were filled with 

 the vivacious spirit of the spring-time. They were 

 a gay throng, these gaudy drakes — mallard, 

 spoonbill, pintail, whistler, and American mer- 

 ganser — and every heart-storming masher 



