228 PEPACTON 



and, when ducks are seen on the wing, cry out, 

 "Mark, coming up," or "Mark, coming down," or, 

 "Mark, coming in," as the case may be. If they 

 decoy, the gunner presently hears the whistle of 

 their wings, or maybe he catches a glimpse of them 

 over the rim of the box as they circle about. Just 

 as they let down their feet to alight, he is expected 

 to spring up and pour his broadside into them. 

 A boat from shore comes and picks up the game, if 

 there is any to pick up. 



The club-man, by common consent, was the first 

 in the box that morning; but only a few ducks 

 were moving, and he had lain there an hour before 

 we marked a solitary bird approaching, and, after 

 circling over the decoys, alighting a little beyond 

 them. The sportsman sprang up as from the bed 

 of the river, and the duck sprang up at the same 

 time, and got away under fire. After a while my 

 other companion went out; but the ducks passed by 

 on the other side, and he had no shots. In the 

 afternoon, remembering the robins, and that robins 

 are game when one's larder is low, I set out alone 

 for the pine bottoms, a mile or more distant. 

 When one is loaded for robins, he may expect to 

 see turkeys, and vice versa. As I was walking 

 carelessly on the borders of an old brambly field 

 that stretched a long distance beside the pine woods, 

 I heard a noise in front of me, and, on looking in 

 that direction, saw a veritable turkey, with a spread 

 tail, leaping along at a rapid rate. She was so 

 completely the image of the barnyard fowl that I 



