A NIGHT'S BIG GUNNING 343 



afore Oi could get the hammers up, the fowl wor out o' 

 the light," was the fowler's disgusted reply. 



Having picked up the widgeon, the puntsman once 

 again proceeded to pole noiselessly up along, while I kept 

 a bright lookout. Nothing was met with, however, 

 and shortly after three o'clock a.m., having lain prone 

 on the hard floor of the gunning-punt for over three 

 hours, and with the thermometer registering several 

 degrees of frost, I suggested to Gilson that we should 

 change places. He agreed readily enough to the proposal, 

 and, crawling aft, I, to the best of my ability, commenced 

 to propel the punt with the setting-pole. My knowledge 

 of the geography of the creek was somewhat limited, how- 

 ever, and very soon we were hard and fast aground ; and 

 not until the punt was lightened of her crew were we 

 enabled to float her off. 



" 'Twill be dawn in a couple of hours, sir, and by your 

 leave, I'll go pres'ly over to t'owd gunnin'-pit on the P'int 

 salts and lay up for the mornin' flight ; theer's safe to be a 



few duck come over from H mushes," said Gilson, 



after we had hauled the punt off the mud. " Like as not 

 t'owd pit 'ull be water-logged and main uncomfortable 

 to sit in," he went on, in an apologetic kind of manner, 

 thinking, possibly, that he was depriving me of a very 

 excellent opportunity. 



On this point I very soon set his mind at rest, in de- 

 claring my intention to try the fleet of a small marsh lying 

 about half -a -mile higher up the creek, from the owner of 

 which I had received permission to shoot thereon. 



