6 The Wild-Fowlers 



all about tides and clamholes, some of 

 you know a little about ducks, but there 

 is n't one of you who ever tasted a real 

 cup of coffee I '11 make it myself! " and 

 the fat Doctor forthwith crouched down 

 into the tiny cabin, and soon had Peritus 

 as busy with the pots and dishes as old 

 Grieb had been with decoys and rubber 

 boots at an earlier hour. 



Refreshed by an immense quantity of 

 bacon, eggs, toast, broiled broadbill, and 

 the Doctor's excellent coffee, our three 

 friends made ready to anchor the sloop 

 " put the hook over," as the Captain ex- 

 pressed it and launch a smaller craft, the 

 deadgrass - lined dingy, in which the 

 fowlers were to spend the morning snugly 

 hidden in the high salt meadow grass of 

 the selected point. 



"I '11 put you genelmen in shape, and 

 then move away a mile er so in th' 

 sloop," said Grieb, as he towed his two 

 charges toward the point of meadowland, 

 the old fellow standing in the centre of a 



