THE NORTH SHORE 79 
climbing upwards but was still within range. He drop- 
ped at the shot but it took another shell to hold him. 
Soon afterwards I saw Jimmy coming back. When 
he reached the lake and headed for the boat, I rose, 
waved my hat, and pointed. Jimmy turned, saw the 
duck, and picked him up. Jimmy brought good luck 
with him. It was long after noon when he returned 
and the ducks in the big raft were beginning to move. 
Unfortunately very few were coming our way. They 
had been resting or sleeping all the morning and now 
wanted to feed. Asa rule they flew back of the blind 
and alighted in the open spaces away from all danger. 
A few pairs or small bunches of three to five came 
around the decoys often enough to make it interesting. 
Most of them that came over us were high up and almost 
out of range. It’s very enjoyable to calculate just 
where to shoot at these highflyers and one hit in three 
is good work. 
“Did you buy your horse?”’ I asked when Jimmy 
returned. 
‘‘No,’”’ he said, ‘‘I did not. He wasa fine animal ten 
years ago but now he’s too old for my work. What 
luck have you had with the ducks?”’ 
(eretty fair,’’ I told him: |) Did: you notice: the 
blind is right between two rafts of ducks?”’ 
““Yes,”’ said Jimmy, “‘I noticed that. We should 
get a good bag of big birds to-day; I saw lots of red- 
heads and canvasbacks flying about—here come a 
couple of redheads now.”’ 
They came on rapidly until almost within shot, then 
circled round south of the blind and came over us as 
usual, high up. I had my double barrel; somehow I 
had more confidence in it—it was easier to sight and 
came up better, then again I was used to it. 
