WINTER PICTURES. 251 



bunks, chairs, a table, culinary utensils, crockery, etc., 

 with one corner piled full of decoys. There were 

 boats to row in and boxes to shoot from, and I felt 

 sure we should have a pleasant time, whether we got 

 any ducks or not. The weather improved hourly, 

 till in the afternoon a well-defined installment of the 

 Indian summer that had been delayed somewhere 

 settled down upon the scene ; this lasted during our 

 stay of two days. The river was placid, even glassy, 

 the air richly and deeply toned with haze, and the 

 sun that of the mellowest October. " The fairer the 

 weather the fewer the ducks," said one of my com- 

 panions. " But this is better than ducks," I thought, 

 and prayed that it might last. 



Then there was something pleasing to the fancy in 

 being so near to Mount Vernon. It formed a sort 

 of rich, historic background to our flitting and trivial 

 experiences. Just where the eye of the great Cap- 

 tain would perhaps first strike the water as he came 

 out in the morning to take a turn up and down his 

 long piazza, the Club had formerly had a " blind," 

 but the ice of a few weeks before our visit had car- 

 ried it away. A little lower down, and in full view 

 from his bedroom window, was the place where the 

 shooting from the boxes was usually done. 



The duck is an early bird, and not much given to 

 wandering about in the afternoon ; hence it was 

 thought not worth while to put out the decoys till 

 the next morning. We would spend the afternoon 

 roaming inland in quest of quail, or rabbits, or tur- 



