Lost on the Prairie. 



then hunt chickens during the day, and work back to the buck- 

 wheat for the evening flight. 



Sunday evening, while we were lounging around under 

 the trees enjoying our after-supper smoke, I heard an almost 

 continual firing from the upper end of the lake, until after dark. 

 This was in the direction of my buckwheat field, and I had 

 grave fears that it was being shot out, as after-dark work will 

 ruin the best of flight shooting. Monday brought one of those 

 grand autumnal mornings, so often seen in prairie countries. 

 Hazy atmosphere, and a cool, bracing breeze from the north- 

 west, full of nature's life-giving tonic. I was astir early. 

 Lighting the camp lantern, I got a cold bite, put a lunch in my 

 pocket, called old Don, and was off. I made lively tracks for 

 the buckwheat field, and had barely time to get fixed in my 

 blind, when a flock of ducks appeared over the timber in the 

 east. They had just commenced leaving the lake for their 

 morning feed ; but in vain did I strain my eyes to catch a flock 

 coming my way. A few scattering birds came in toward the 

 field on a scout, circled around at a safe distance, and then left 

 for other parts. Just as I had feared : They had been pounded 

 so hard, and so late, Sunday evening, that they had been burned 

 off their feeding ground, and it would be many a day before 

 there would be any more shooting in that field. The sun was 

 well up above the tree tops, when I called Don, and struck off 

 across the prairie toward a field of wheat shocks. It seemed to 

 be my day off; though we hunted hard all the forenoon, we 

 struck only one covey of chickens, and they left the country 

 on the first rise. About noon I turned the point of a steep hill I 

 had been circling, and came suddenly out on the shores of a 

 pretty little prairie lake an ideal place to lunch and loaf away 

 the mid-day hours. I got out our bite, and, with Don's help, put 

 it where it would do the most good. After lunch, I got out the 

 old briar-root and took a smoke ; then stretched out on the 

 brown grass for a nap. It was well along in the afternoon when 

 I awoke, and set off across the prairie towards the lake. From 

 the top of a high hill I could look far off to the north and see 



U08] 



