96 GAME-BIRDS AT HOME. 



with lazy stroke of wing, weigging h!s long green 

 neck and head up and down as if looking for a 

 comfortable place to alight and suspecting no 

 dan — 



**But hold on. How about those other two 

 ducks? " 



Perdition seize your curiosity! What differ- 

 ence does it make now, after so many years? 

 But if you will insist, I suppose I must tell. I 

 had a little hatchet once, myself, and it worked 

 just as well on the corner of a new barn as on 

 cherry-trees. One day when an ancestor ap- 

 peared on the scene of my labors I thought I 

 would make a record that would dull the luster 

 of that of Washington. But when the said an- 

 cestor stooped to cut a hickory sprout, my thinker 

 slipped an eccentric and ditched the train of 

 thought in a misapprehension of fact. The 

 readjustment of my moral machinery that took 

 place in the next ninety-one seconds was so 

 complete that it has never since jumped a cog. 

 Therefore, impertinent reader, if you will insist, 

 you shall have the truth. I got them both. 



Well, that mallard was so big, plump, and easy 

 in flight, along the gun I so plainly saw the light 



