90 MEMORIES OF GLENAUGH. 



" Musha thin, 'tis hard to say, Sir. They're 

 yawry (wary) craturs thim ducks, but it wud 

 be no harm af he was after tryinV 



" I should desire nothing better," said I, 

 getting up. My host, I knew, had some duties 

 to perform in the neighbourhood, and I took 

 my gun from the hall rack and sallied out for 

 the Pill. 



Ugh ! it was a cold night. The wind nipped 

 one's ears as if a bad barber was cutting one's 

 hair and a little skin with it. The Pill was 

 close by, and in the moonlight the wet banks 

 from which the sea had subsided looked like 

 mounds of silver. The air was crisp and thin 

 with frost, and you could hear the tide snoring 

 outside in the dark, while the calls of the 

 various birds fell all round quaintly and even 

 musically. 



I got behind the barn and watched the 

 mouth of the creek narrowly. Four curlews 

 dart up, followed by a string of red shank. A 

 belated gull flaps heavily along, after him a 

 cormorant swift as an arrow, and skimming the 

 surface of the water. As yet there is no sign 

 of the duck. I can hear them, however, plain 



