An Autumn Outing in Nebraska. 



struck the scent, crawled along the fence a few rods and 

 stopped, saying as plainly as a dog can, "There they are in 

 that bunch." I took one more step forward and they arose 

 with a whir. We each got a shot with one bird to each gun, 

 and that was the last we saw of them, as they went out of 

 sight in the timber and could not be found again. Returning to 

 the buggy we hitched up and headed old Tom for home, hunt- 

 ing every likely-looking place along the road without seeing 

 another quail. 



During the next ten days J. T. and I drove out nearly 

 every evening for a hunt, never striking more than one or two 

 bevies on an evening, and not getting more than one or two 

 shots at a bevy. The Thursday evening before I was to leave 

 for home, some of the boys were in L. P. Davis' place of busi- 

 ness, and it was unanimously decided that we must have one 

 good company hunt before I left. After talking the matter 

 over we decided to go the next morning to the big lagoon for 

 jacksnipes and ducks. 



Friday morning, as J. T. and I were getting on our shoot- 

 ing togs, we heard a welcome "whoa," from the driver, and 



from Charlie W , "All aboard for the lagoon." Our rig 



was a big covered hack with seats arranged on either side and 

 plenty of room under the seats for the paraphernalia, eatables 

 and drinkables of the party ; and it takes a good deal of the lat- 

 ter to carry a party of shooters through a day's hunting in this 

 climate. 



Our party consisted of Charlie Walrodt, L. P. Davis, Billy 

 Keedle, Dr. J. T. Steele, the writer and Jim Knight, the driver. 

 For dogs we had Davis' two Irish setters and Charlie's staunch 

 old pointer. It did not take long to find out that the weather 

 had changed in the night. The wind had swung around into 

 the northeast and came down cold enough to make a gum coat 

 over the shooting coat feel good. We were all fixed for it but 

 Davis. He wore a light summer coat and had no heavy one 

 along. He shut his teeth, humped up his back to the chilly 

 morning blast and stood it for about two miles, when we saw 



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