78 ALONG THE HILLSBOROUGH. 
with a rifle, and do his worst to kill or maim 
every living thing that came in sight, from 
a spotted sandpiper to a turkey buzzard! I 
call him a “ gentleman;” he was in gentle 
company, and the fact that he chewed gum 
industriously would, I fear, hardly invali- 
date his claim to that title. The narrow 
river wound in and out between low, densely 
wooded banks, and the beauty of the shift- 
ing scene was enough almost to take one’s 
breath away; but the crack of the rifle 
was not the less frequent on that account. 
Perhaps the sportsman was a Southerner, 
to whom river scenery of that enchanting 
kind was an old story. More likely he was 
a Northerner, one of the men who thank 
Heaven they are “ not sentimental.” 
In my rambles up and down the river 
road I saw few water birds beside the her- 
ons. Two or three solitary cormorants would 
be shooting back and forth at a furious rate, 
or swimming in midstream; and sometimes 
a few spotted sandpipers and killdeer plov- 
ers were feeding along the shore. Once in 
a great while a single gull or tern made its 
appearance, — just often enough to keep 
me wondering why they were not there 
