A Day with the Rails. 751 



when, on reaching home, with beaming face he hastened to present 

 his mother with his first bag of real game. 



When they reached the tavern on the border of the river, they 

 were greeted with the honest laugh of the innkeeper and hearty 

 shakes of the hands by the "pushers," who rose from their seat on 

 the veranda to welcome the gentleman so well known to them ; for 

 he had spent many seasons in shooting over these marshes. After 

 much talk about the time of high water, the various places where 

 rail were most likely to be abundant, and the successes of those 

 sportsmen who had just left for home, two pushers were engaged to 

 be in readiness soon after dinner, for the shooting-ground selected 

 (if ground it may be called) was over three miles distant. The 

 pushers came soon after the youth had unpacked the guns and 

 cartridges, had donned his shooting-jacket, and had got his father's 

 " traps " in shape to be handily carried to the boats. I strongly sus- 

 pect that these preparations had so fired the imagination of the 

 youngster with anticipated sport that he had not had so much 

 real pleasure in a twelvemonth. He met the pushers as they 

 reached the river-bank. The two boats he there saw were flat- 

 bottomed, pointed at the bow, with a broad stern in which was a 

 roomy seat for the pusher to stand on while he plied his "gaff." 

 This is the name given to the pushing-pole, from twelve to fifteen 

 feet long, and fashioned at one end somewhat like the gaff to which 

 is fastened "the head" of the mainsail of a sloop. In one of the 

 boats was another form of gaff, whose end was more like a large 

 gun-stock. Both gaffs were quite broad, so that in crossing small 

 spaces of open and deep water the pusher can use them quite effect- 

 ively as paddles. 



In the bow of each boat was a good-sized basket, covered with 

 a canvas flap, and holding a large cigar-box containing a hundred 

 or more of cartridges. This box was tied with its upper edge 

 nearly in a line with the top of the basket. This arrangement 

 left the bottom and nearly all of the space in the basket free 

 for the birds; and the canvas cover shielded these from the sun 

 and the cartridges from th< w< t. 



Before starting, the father instructed his son to take a scon or 

 so of cartridges and put them in the roomy right-hand pocket of 

 his shooting-jacket, explaining that they would thus be in the most 



