DECEMBER OUT-OF-DOORS. 41 



for him (and against him), remains at heart 

 a child of nature. His ancestors may have 

 been shoemakers for fifty generations, but 

 none the less he feels an impulse now and 

 then to quit his bench and go hunting, 

 though it be only for a mess of clams. 



Leaving the crowd, we kept on our way 

 across the beach to Little Nahant, the cliffs 

 of which offer an excellent position from 

 which to sweep the bay in search of loons, 

 old-squaws, and other sea-fowl. Here we 

 presently met two gunners. They had been 

 more successful than most of the sportsmen 

 that one falls in with on such trips ; between 

 them they had a guillemot, two horned larks, 

 and a brace of large plovers, of some species 

 unknown to us, but noticeable for their 

 bright cinnamon -colored rumps. "Why 

 couldn't we have found those plovers, in- 

 stead of that fellow? " said my companion, 

 as we crossed the second beach. I fear he 

 was envious at the prosperity of the wicked. 

 But it was only a passing cloud; for on 

 reaching the main peninsula we were 

 speedily arrested by loud cries from a piece 

 of marsh, and after considerable wading and 

 a clamber over a detestable barbed-wire 



