32 AMEEICAK GAME BIRD SHOOTIJS^G. 



*' A thundering big grizzly or a behemoth, I reckon," 

 was the answer. 



" Is your gun loaded?" I inquired. 



*'No." 



"Is yours?" 



*'No." 



*' Then got behind this tree and load, and if it pitches 

 into us we must fight." 



I obeyed his suggestion with a promptitude I was 

 rarely guilty of, and both secreted ourselves behind a 

 huge live-oak. As the footsteps were approaching rapid- 

 ly, we began to load our guns with small shot m violent 

 haste, but before we had finished the operation, a sturdy, 

 ragged negro, who was laden with three turkeys, emerged, 

 not ten feet away from us. Wlien my companion saw 

 him he indulged in a vigorous expletive, while I laughed 

 heartily at our needless scare. The Fifteenth Amend- 

 ment was evidently as frightened as ourselves, for, on 

 seeing us, he stopped abruptly and stared at us for a few 

 moments in stupefied amazement; but when wc advanced 

 towards him his distended eyeballs ceased rolling, and 

 a broad grin overspread his features as he exclaimed: 



" Loh, gemmen, how you did skeer me," and he 

 chuckled deeply, as if it were the funniest of jokes. 



My companion, who was not of so amiable a disposi- 

 tion as the colored voter, asked abruptly: 



" Where did you kill those turkeys? " 



*' Down dere in de bottoms," was the answer. 



*' Did you kill them in a trap? " 



"Loh, no, massa; I shot 'em wid dis gun," and he 

 held up an old weapon that looked as if it were more 

 dangerous to the carrier than to the birds. 



" I tell you what it is, boss," he continued; " I had 

 the powerfullest time you eber seed in calHng dcse yere 

 gobblehs widin range. Mighty hard to fool 'em, I tell 

 you; why, dey knows more 'n some preachers. I fetched 



