120 MEN I HAVE FISHED WITH. 



lots. Why, Mat Miller! What you doin' here campin' 

 out with these boys? I see ye all go by when I was hid 

 in the lilypads around the bend yonder watchin' for wood 

 ducks, an' I knowed the hull lot on'y Mat, an' I'd a 

 knowed him ef I'd a-suspected he'd come a-campin' with 

 you boys. What're ye up to, Mat? Burglars or thieves 

 been on the island, or are ye on'y lookin' up the boys 

 that's just come of age and just goin' to vote for the first 

 time this fall?" 



"Sit down here," said the General ; "get outside of this 

 warm coffee. I'm not looking for you, but there's a 

 widow up there at John Morris' rope-walk that is, and 

 she'll get you, too, if you don't look out." 



This was a clean knock-out, for if ever there was a 

 man who was shy of a woman it was that confirmed old 

 bachelor, Port Tyler. 



The stars twinkled. Venus, just about to disrobe 

 and retire for the night, winked at Polaris, the night 

 clerk, and hid herself behind Bethlehem woods. A 

 night heron said "quawk" in a derisive tone, and even 

 the little barn owl seemed unduly hilarious as it alighted 

 on the gable of the barn with a field-mouse. Then there 

 was a vast wave of silence that rose like the battle waves 

 of Ossian and overflowed the lands on either side of the 

 historic Popskinny. Miller's shot struck home, and the 

 bashful trapper took it in silence. Not a leaf stirred. 

 Billy Shaw finally ventured to ask, "What kind o' game 

 are you after, Port?" 



"Oh, just lookin' for yellow-legs and shore birds. 

 I've got three young quawks* in the boat, and nobody 



*This is the way we called this night heron, Nycticorax. The com- 

 mon name is sometimes spelled "squawk," while some naturalists call it 

 "the qua bird." If you take my spelling and add "quock" to it, and 

 then divide the sum total by two, you will get very near to the bird's own 

 pronunciation of its name ; and who should know better than he? 



