THE PINNATED GROUSE. 79 



This was followed by a series of explosions strongly 

 suggestive of osculatory exercise, and afterwards by sev- 

 eral an " How-d'-ye-do," which were evidently addressed 

 to the masculine members of the company. 



I was introduced to the strangers "all in a lumi?," soon 

 after their arrival, and I then learned that they were the 

 surprise party for whom the prairie fowl were so much 

 wanted. They remained rather late, and spent the 

 greater portion of the evening in dancing and singing, 

 the instrumentalist in every instance being the fair Diana, 

 who played as well as she shot and drove, while the 

 automatic turner of the leaves of music was the 

 Captain, who was as patient as he was assiduous, but 

 whose only reward was severe criticisms of his awkward- 

 ness as a leaf-turner and a fowler. He received these with 

 good-natured smiles, for their harmless purpose was evi- 

 dently well understood. When the terpsichorean work of 

 the evening was over, about midnight, the entire party 

 sat down to a bounteous feast, in which prairie fowl 

 formed the leading dish, and the manner in which they 

 were shot and the ignominious defeat of our rivals the 

 leading topic of conversation. When supper was finished 

 the visitors wended their way homeward, and so ended 

 St. Prairie Chicken Day in one of the most hospitable 

 mansions in the State of Kansas. Miss Lucy, of course, 

 received her wagers in due time, and, if events followed 

 their natural order, she is now, in all probability, the 

 honored spouse of Captain Blank, the State Senator for 

 Blank County. 



I have been out after pinnated grouse late in the sea- 

 son, when I could not bag more than two or three brace 

 a day with heavy charges of No. 6 shot, and on more 

 than one occasion I was glad to score a brace, for from 

 November to January they are as wild as woodcock, and 

 far more wary, as the least sound frequently routs them 

 from covert, and sends them ten or twelve miles away be- 



