422 WILD FOWL SHOOTING. 
lay no claims to greatness. Your claims, no doubt, are 
those of innate modesty, while mine are 
“ Well! well! come with me, and we will get things 
ready for an early start, as we have five to seven miles 
to go, and must be in the marsh at break of day. You 
can get shells at the gunsmith’s loaded, or, if you prefer, 
load them yourself. Atany rate take plenty. Better 
bring back twenty, than run short. No matter what 
your success may have been in any one day, if you allow 
yourself to run short a few shells, the pleasure derived 
is entirely lost, by reason of the chagrin and disappoint- 
ment felt when out of shells. You will find it poor con- 
solation indeed to think how many shells you have left 
at home, and ‘might have brought along.’ Yes, you 
will feel that you might have done a great many things— 
and as you see the mallards flopping over your decoys, 
then alighting within twenty yards, saying to you deri- 
sively, ‘ M’amph!’ you willgodown in your pockets for 
the twentieth time feeling for the shell that isn’t there, 
then grate your teeth, smother an exclamation, forcible 
but not elegant, appropriate but not refined, and you 
will arise in your blind filled with disgust, as you see 
the mallard rise and leisurely fly away, while over the 
marsh his mocking cry reaches you, ‘ M’amph,’ 
‘m’amph.’ Then, through your brain, fast fleeting 
thoughts pursue one another, and this one always at 
the head—how thoughtless I was in not bringing 
more shells!’ Then you think you might possibly 
have been a bigger fool,—but you doubt it emphatically. 
“The shooting to-morrow will be mostly over decoys. 
Your gun throws No. 6 shot, close and strong, and that 
is the size you had better shoot. That size you will 
find is always right for ducks in a choke bore gun; _be- 
