52 WITH THE U. S. NATURALISTS 



** Their shootin' wasn't so bad," he admitted 

 grudgingly, "but it was their talkin' I couldn't 

 abide. They'd yap, yap, yap about shootin' a 

 duck, tellin' where it flew, an' how it flew, an' jest 

 how they fired at it — shucks! you'd think it was 

 the first an' only duck ever shot since the world 

 began. 



**Not only that, but they'd yap over what kind 

 of a duck it was an' toss around a bunch o' names 

 no one had ever heard of. An' it's to favor these 

 here rich ' sportsmen ' that they try an' stop a man 

 who's lived here all his life from shootin' his din- 

 ner when he needs it. Game laws ! I 'd like to tell 

 the people who made those laws what I think of 

 'em!" 



Bull Adam's anger was slowly waking up. 

 Shan knew the signs, for the old moonshiner, when 

 rage was on him, was his own danger signal. The 

 worst licking the boy had ever received — it had put 

 him on his back for three days — ^had been for an 

 entirely unjust cause during one of Bull's black 

 tempers. He regretted having started the storm, 

 now, and sought to pacify his uncle by turning the 

 subject. 



"And when it came to knowing ducks, I reckon," 

 he said, "you could put it all over them?" 



