WILD SWANS. 233 



lifted your gun, as much as to say, 'here's a joke; he's 

 going to fire at us. ' " 



" They didn't find it a joke, though. Why didn't you 

 fire at them." 



''Well, the fact is my gun was not loaded." 



" I'm going to make up for it, however, the next time, 

 so you needn't make a fuss about it. I suppose you will 

 put it in the papers one of these days." 



"It is very likely, unless you do better. But now we 

 must stop our nonsense, for the first principle in shoot- 

 mg wild fowl is, ' No talking in the blind.' " 



"All right; I'm as silent as a love-lorn oyster. Come 

 on, ducks and geese, and beauteous swans." 



They did not come on as rapidly as they ought, how- 

 ever, and we waited at least twenty minutes before a 

 large number of ducks came near enough to enable us to 

 use our guns; but we made up for lost time on them, for 

 we brought down three, and filled the air with small 

 clouds of feathers. As we had no dog with us, we had 

 to do our own retrieving. This was rather cold work, 

 for the water was exceedingly chilly; so chilly, in fact, 

 that we found it a difficult matter to handle our wea- 

 pons when we desired to finish the cripples. Having 

 secured the dead birds, we seated ourselves on a fallen 

 log, while waiting to welcome the feathered creatures to 

 hospitable graves, and devoted our time to discussing the 

 ejffiect of the presence of the steamer on our day's sport, 

 but before we could come to any decision about the mat- 

 ter, she rounded a turn in the river, and gave vent to 

 such a piercing scream that she aroused thousands of the 

 natatores and sent them scurrying towards us. Seeing 

 that the swans were mingled up with the geese and 

 ducks, we reserved our fire untd the former just passed 

 us, and then opened on the cygnets, which occupied the 

 rear, and bagged two of them. Having gathered our 

 trophies, we took to our boat, and, paddling round the 



