WILD-DUCK SHOOTING. 



197 



"There," said Frank, as he handed the last of them to Dick 

 in the punt, "it is too hot to shoot any more to-day. We 

 have done enough to be able to say that we have been flapper- 

 shooting, and that is all I care for this hot weather." 



" I am glad you are leaving off;" said Dick, ** that villanous 

 saltpetre smoke hangs in the air so that one can see nothing." 



" Then let us have a bathe, and leave the ducks until the 

 winter-time," said Jimmy. 



" Yes, but we won't leave them quite yet. We must shoot 

 them when they come to the corn-fields in August." 



WOOD-PIGEON. 



And as we are now writing about wild-duck shooting we will 

 just advance a short time in our story, and take a glance at 

 the boys shooting wild ducks when the fields are yellow with 

 harvest. 



Frank and Jimmy are perched in an oak-tree, which after 

 many years of wrestling with the winds and storms, has assumed 

 a very quaint and picturesque shape. Its mighty stem is riven 

 and has great hollows in it, and its low, wide spreading branches 

 shade more of the field than the Norfolk farmer likes. It 

 stands in a hedge which separates the corn-fi M, where the 



