94 THE PASSENGER PIGEON IN PENNSYLVANIA 



A brisk trade in powder and shot soon sprung up 

 in the stores keeping the articles, and lasted until the 

 supply was exhausted. 



Not being the owner of a gun, I thought for a 

 while I should be unable to take part in beginning the 

 sport. Quite late in the evening, however, a young 

 man in my employ informed me that he had obtained 

 the loan of two shotguns until 7 o'clock the next morn- 

 ing. He also obtained a supply of ammunition. We 

 planned an early start for the woods on the hills in 

 the morningj thinking that if the "early bird gets the 

 worm" the early hunter would stand a good chance 

 of getting the bird. 



. Early the next morning two expectant sportsmen 

 might have been seen climbing the hill west of the 

 town — that is, they might have been seen had anyone 

 been up to see them, and had it been light enough to 

 distinguish objects. 



Arriving at the crest, in a small opening in the 

 forest where the timber had been cut down, they stop- 

 ped and listened. Not a sound was to be heard. The 

 twilight darkness had not been sufficiently dispelled to 

 make easy the discernment of objects in or beneath 

 the tops of the trees. Anxiously waiting, the eastern 

 horizon was scanned to catch the first indication of 

 the rising sun. A slight, diffused halo of light tip- 

 ped the hilltops. Brighter and brighter it grew. The 

 orb of day rose slowly above the horizon and shot 

 rays of light through the tree tops, and dispelled the 

 hazy darkness beneath them. Not a pigeon could be 



