90 “COME DUCK SHOOTING WITH ME” 
used to say, ‘When I can’t average a teal for every shell 
I'll quit shooting’; he often got three or more teal at a 
shot and that helped his average. He rarely shot more 
than three hours, but he knew how to call ducks. I 
always liked John.”’ 
““Well,”’ said Jimmy, ‘“‘I’ve seen that two-by-four 
John’s Island; there’s just room enough for a blind on 
it. If you take a step anywhere straight away from 
the blind your foot hits either the mud or the water, 
when there’s enough water to cover the mud.’”’ We 
were rowing along a little beyond the mouth of the 
overflow or drainage river that ran from the main 
river to the North Lake when I noticed two bunches 
of teal take a short cut across the sandbar towards 
John’s Island. Looking out in the middle of the lake I 
saw a great black raft of ducks sitting there. ‘‘Hold 
on a minute,” I said. 
““What’s the matter now, got another hunch?” asked 
Jimmy. 
‘““That’s it exactly. We'll make our blind right by 
that heap of driftwood on the sandbar.”’ 
“‘All right,’”’ said Jimmy, ‘‘that suits me, I don’t 
care about rowing any farther than I have too.” 
Jimmy rowed ashore, stood up in the boat, and 
looked around. 
“Jerusalem! I have been rowing with my back 
towards that raft of ducks out there, never even saw 
them. Say! I’ll bet your eyes hit that bunch of fowl 
when you had that ‘hunch’ of yours to stop here. 
We're going to get a shoot to-day, sure pop.”’ 
After the guns and stuff were all landed Jimmy 
rowed away towards the nearest tules to hide the skiff. 
It was nearly half a mile and Jimmy had a long wade 
through the mud coming back. Meanwhile I dug a 
