758 



A Day with the Rails. 



RAIL-SHOOTING. 



With varying successes and failures, the youth shot till the tide 

 had fallen so low that the birds had enough near ground to retreat 

 to when the boat approached them and they would not take wing. 



And thus ended the boy's first lesson in the marshes. To say 

 he was proud, notwithstanding his lost teal, would do him injustice. 

 He thought more of how happy he was to know that hereafter he 

 could be a companion to his father when he ran away from the con- 

 fusion and cares of the city for three or four days' relaxation in the 

 brown autumn fields, or when he left in summer for two or three 

 weeks' sojourn in the depths of the northern woods. 



On entering the oats, the father's boat had taken a different 

 direction from that of his son's, till they were separated by fifty 

 yards or more. Thus no danger could ensue should the youngster, 

 in the heat of sport, shoot toward his father. As a further precau- 

 tion against danger, the youth's gun, a 16-gauge 6 lb. breech- 

 loader, was charged with only 2 drachms of powder and % oz. of No. 

 12 shot, the finest made, except "dust-shot." His father shot a 12- 

 gauge gun, loaded with 2 % drachms of powder and 1 ounce of No. 

 10 shot. He also had in his boat another gun of 10-gauge, charged 



