DUCK-SHOOTING. 269 



luck, and with a restlessness that showed increasing 

 dissatisfaction on the part of Henry ; so that I was 

 not surprised when, early in the afternoon, he told 

 me that he must return to the club-house. I re- 

 mained for some hours where ^ie left me ; but hear- 

 ing rapid shooting near the Gap, I poled my way 

 there through a broad field of lilies, known as the 

 Pond Lily Channel, and there, to my surprise, found 

 Henry. 



Whether it was the desire to be alone, for his 

 peculiarity of preferring to shoot by himself has 

 been mentioned, or whether he was tempted by a 

 favorable flight of birds, I never knew ; when I ap- 

 peared, he paddled hastily away as though ashamed, 

 and made no answer to my inquiries as to what 

 detained him, or how they could manage without 

 him at the house. Unceremoniously occupying his 

 place, I completed the evening, and the allotted 

 hours of my stay, with some excellent shooting at 

 flocks of mallards, widgeons, and blue-bills, that pour- 

 ed through the Gap in endless flights, till after dark. 



Then, for the last time, I rowed through the dark- 

 ness towards the well-known point ; for the last time 

 sat down at the groaning board which our kind- 

 hearted landlady had furnished so liberally ; played 

 my last game with the euchre-loving son of Kentucky ; 

 smoked a farewell pipe of Killikinnick in the so- 

 ciable circle around the air-tight ; slept for the last 

 time in the comfortable bed under the hospitable 

 roof of the club-house ; and next morning, having 

 seen my associates depart, each in his little boat, and 



