My First Pair of Mallards. 



one starts out determined to accomplish, I was surprised to see 

 how easy it was to win the goal. Early one September morn- 

 ing I counted the contents of my savings bank and found I 

 had just enough money to pay for a little single-barrel in a 

 down town store window that I had been keeping an eye on all 

 summer. My hard-earned hoard was soon in the till of' the 

 hardware man, and I was the happy possessor of my first gun. 



The next day I loaded up my pockets with a bottle of shot, 

 a flask of powder and a box of G. D. caps, shouldered the little 

 gun, and made a short-cut for the old pond. On getting near 

 the place, I crept cautiously through the thicket toward the 

 water. There was an old dead stub of a tree, standing a little 

 distance from the edge of the thicket and only a few feet away 

 from the water. I felt confident that, if I could reach this point 

 without being seen, I was sure of a shot their favorite resort 

 about that time of day being not more than thirty yards from 

 the stump. In order to gain this point, I had to cross an open 

 space, covered only with a short growth of wire grass. On 

 reaching this open ground I took off my straw hat, dropped 

 clown on my stomach, and, pushing the gun ahead of me, wrig- 

 gled along slowly toward the coveted hiding place. It was 

 tedious work, and it seemed as though I would never reach it. 

 The occasional Quack ! quack ! of a duck, floating to my ears 

 from over the water, did not serve to quiet my nerves any, and, 

 when I at last gained the cover, it was a very tired and excited 

 boy that peered out from behind the old stub. Yes, there they 

 were the old mother and five of the young ones, but too far 

 out for my little gun. 



All true disciples of Nimrod must be imbued with an unlim- 

 ited amount of patience, and on this memorable afternoon I sat 

 and watched those ducks, with hopes alternately rising and 

 falling, as they worked in toward my hiding place or swam 

 away from it. Just before sunset they glided off to their island 

 home in the middle of the pond and I had to give it up and go 

 home for the night. I suspect my face showed failure, even if 

 my heart did not acknowledge it ; for, on arriving home, father 



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