JOHN’S ISLAND 93 
decoys. They were all green-wings. Jimmy gave two 
or three imitations of the teal’s whistle. The bunch 
turned and came straight for us. When they reached 
the outside point of the decoys I rose to shoot. The 
teal saw me and as one bird they whirled towards the 
sandbar. As they whirled, in the excitement I let go 
both barrels together and raked the bunch from end to 
end. 
“Did the gun kick?”’ asked Jimmy, when I failed to 
fire the second barrel. ‘‘I thought perhaps from the 
big boom your old gun made that you fired both barrels 
together. ”’ 
‘“‘T didn’t notice any kick,” I replied, ‘“but both 
barrels went off together allright. We’ve made a good 
start for those fifty ducks, eh? See if you can get those 
cripples.’’ There were four cripples paddling off in 
different directions. Jimmy got them all but had to 
reshoot two of them. ‘‘There are four more dropped 
scattering along the sandbar behind the blind,’’ said 
Jimmy; ‘‘T’ll go after them.’’ 
When all set for another shot, we had a little pile of 
sixteen teal piled up back of the blind. 
‘“‘Jimmy,’’ said I, “‘if we get sixteen teal with four 
shells, how many teal will we get with a hundred shells?”’ 
“Oh, quit your arithmetic,’”’ answered Jimmy, ‘‘I 
never was any good at that old stuff.”’ 
‘‘Did the stylish fellow laugh when you told him your 
name was James?”’ IJ asked. 
‘Yes, a little,’’ answered Jimmy. ‘‘He told me he 
had a dear friend named Reuben and that I looked so 
much like him that he really forgot for a minute when 
he called me Rube; he apologized real handsome. 
Just then another chap came up, looked the game over, 
and bet a five dollar bill. I thought sure he would win 
