128 WILD FOWL SHOOTING 
Don’t wait for me, but when you catch a glimpse of 
any, shoot quick ; there is more luck than skill in this 
dim light. After you have shot, never mind the result, 
Don will watch for that; for you cannot see whether 
or not you have hit. If you are successful you can 
hear them,—splendid!) You did that nicely. You got 
two down, I heard them strike the water. I was just 
going to shoot, but you were too quick for me. No, 
no. Don! lie down. You can’t go this time. We 
will not have you go now, and then return clambering 
into the boat, splashing mud all over us. Never fear, 
we will get them later. They fell in the grass, and if 
crippled will lie low, while if dead, we will find them, 
or rather Don will. We have along day before us, and 
don’t want the hay wet on the start. Look off to the 
east. See! day is breaking, and the flight will soon 
begin. Mark! right before you. You take the head one 
and I will take the other. Well! well! That was 
simply slaughter; too easy, wasn’t 1t? They never 
knew what struck them. A pair of pin-tails. How do 
I know so in the twilight ? Now that’s a nice question 
to ask an experienced duck-hunter. Why, my dear 
friend, I know a duck by its flight, its shape, its speed, 
its circling, its pitching,—know them at a distance, the 
same as you know a man a great way off by some 
peculiarity in his gait. See! The sun is rising! Very 
soon his round, red face will stare in wonderment at 
us. Hear the wind, how gently it sighs through the 
rice stalks. And there, ahead of us, see on the water 
the reflection from the sky. Isn’t it beautiful! The 
water resting so placidly while the deep red, the orange, 
the greenish tinge, as it joins the pale yellow, gives to 
the water a marbleized appearance, polished to the high- 
