206 OLD PLYMOUTH TRAILS 



answers Jotham. "He counted 'em after he had 

 shot 'em. 



"Well, they began to yelp 'Look out for him ! 

 Look out for him !' and the ducks knew what that 

 meant. All that great blanket of ducks uncov- 

 ered the pond with one motion. Grandfather 

 said it was just like a curtain rising straight up, 

 for they were all black ducks. There is no other 

 duck can go straight up in the air. Other ducks 

 slide off on a slant against the wind." 



How Jotham manages to put the lonely quaver 

 of the yellow-leg's call into that phrase "Look 

 out for him ! Look out for him !" with its four- 

 note repetition is more than I know, but he al- 

 ways does, and you can see the big flock swing 

 through the mist as he says it. 



"Grandfather was pretty mad to lose that 

 chance at good game and he made up his mind 

 that he'd take it out of the telltales, so he began 

 to whistle 'em back. He was a master hand at 

 any wild call and pretty soon he lit the flock. 

 There they were, a rim of yellow-legs all around 

 the pond, a perfect circle except in one place, 

 where some dogwood bushes made down to the 



