An Autumn Outing in Nebraska. 



hearty greeting we were driven to his home, where we were 

 welcomed by his wife. Supper over, J. T. and I left the ladies 

 to talk over the woman's side of the world, and we went down 

 town to see the boys and talk shoot. This same little queen 

 city of the plains contains as jolly a lot of boys belonging to the 

 shooting fraternity as one will find in a city of its size in the 

 country. But they are a truthful lot of shooters and answered 

 my inquiries about the prospects : "Plenty of birds but can't 

 find them ; too dry ; we have had no rain since July." As the 

 open season began Saturday morning, October 1, my brother 

 and I thought we would face the dust and wind and see if we 

 could not knock out quails enough for our Sunday dinner. We 

 started about 9 o'clock and drove out four miles south of town 

 to a timbered draw. Hitching the horse to a tree, we got our 

 guns, put them together, filled our shell pockets, turned old 

 Sport loose and started down the east side of the creek. We all 

 three worked hard and faithfully down as far as the brush ex- 

 tended, then crossed over and came back on the west side, 

 reaching the buggy about 2 o'clock without seeing a feather. 

 We selected a shady place behind the buggy, spread clown the 

 lap robe, and opened up our lunch basket. In the morning when 

 we saw the ladies putting up the lunch, we told them there was 

 enough for a gang of harvest hands, but we had no trouble in 

 disposing of everything but the basket and dishes. While we 

 sat discussing our last cup of coffee, Brother J. T. suddenly 

 turned around and pointed up the creek. Following his finger 

 with my eye, I was just in time to see a fine bevy of quails set- 

 tling down in the brush on the east side of the creek. Picking 

 up our guns we started after them, J. T. and I keeping along 

 on the outside edge of the timber, letting the dog work back- 

 ward ahead of us. Old Sport was onto his job, and worked 

 very cautiously, but just as he began to draw on the birds the 

 whole bevy broke cover away ahead of him, and going about 

 eighty rods east, dropped down in a patch of ragweed near an 

 old pasture fence. Circling around to get the wind, we worked 

 up to them carefully, one on each side of the fence. Sport 



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