WiLp-FowLt or WiLp-Fow Lt 
shacks, that we had seen in many miles. There we 
made ourselves comfortable, getting supper with 
our little oil stove and then turning in for rest. It 
must be confessed that our sleep was none of the 
soundest. Down below were cows and calves, horses 
and colts, pigs and sheep, dogs and poultry, and 
noises of various kinds were incessant. Around us 
rats were perambulating, and a cat was making suc- 
cessful sallies from time to time, while a shrill- 
voiced cockerel on the beam above us had evi- 
dently decided that sleep was not to be allowed. 
All night the rain poured down on the roof like 
an avalanche, and in the morning continued una- 
bated. There was nothing to do but make another 
day of it—a rather dreary prospect. My disappoint- 
ment, however, was tempered by the fact that the 
evening before we had passed a small slough, only 
five minutes’ walk from the barn, that seemed to be 
full of Ducks. So, after breakfast, I donned boots 
and mackintosh, and set out for it with one of the 
Norwegian boys, who told me that last year a pair 
of wild Geese had raised a brood on top of a Musk- 
rat house in this slough, and that he thought they 
were there again. As we approached a whole cloud 
of Ducks flew up, and I noticed many interesting 
Waders along the margin. ‘The first thing was to 
look for the Goose nest. I waded out, up to my 
boot-tops, to the several ‘‘houses,’’ but there was 
no sign of it. “Then we took a turn along the shore, 
passing through a tract of reeds up from the edge. 
Suddenly, without warning, a female Pintail fluttered 
out almost from under our feet and rapidly disap- 
peared in the blinding rain. In a little hollow, shel- 
175 
