SKY-BLUE GREAT COATS. 353 



were all military great-coats, from the Government stores, 

 some one, or the nation generally, asserting its freedom 

 in this as in all other things, had, like Falstaff, " misused 

 the king's press damnably," for the blue coats were in 

 nowise patched nor worn out, but in a state of very ser 

 viceable perfection. 



On starting for our hunt, the old frontier oracle always 

 strayed off alone, leaving Mr Shields and myself together, 

 and I suspect for the fair purpose of contrasting the bag 

 he expected to make against mine, though I stood to 

 him, by the presence of Mr Shields, in the light of two 

 to one. As I anticipated, there was not such a thing as 

 a wild goose to be seen, and scarcely a duck. On com 

 ing together early in the day, brought so by the report 

 of Davis' s gun, Brutus had to give that old hunter a spe 

 cimen of the craft of an English retriever, for Davis had 

 killed, a wood duck, and it had dropped in the water in 

 the midst of the arms of a large and fallen tree. The 

 bird was brought to bag. After this little episode we did 

 not again meet till the day was done. While beating for 

 game, Mr Shields and myself came upon a large pond 

 in the woods, completely filled with rushes; when en 

 couraging Brutus to go in and hunt it, a small flock of 

 English wild duck arose, and we fired three or four bar 

 rels into them. Two ducks appeared to fall dead, and a 

 couple more fell at some little distance. Those that 

 seemed to fall dead, however, were only winged, when, 

 from the extent and depth of the water, and thickness of 

 the rushes that grew in it, though Brutus worked for an 

 hour or more, we failed to get them. The two that fell 

 some distance away were quite dead, and these we ob 

 tained. 



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