GENERAL MARTIN MILLER. 



121 



about here eats 'em but me; so I can't sell J em, an' if 

 you'll eat 'em I'll cook 'em." 



By unanimous consent it was voted "a go/' or words 

 to that effect. Billy Shaw, who had no fear of thunder 

 now that it was not in his immediate front, said that we 

 were down for fun and might as well have it. "If you 

 are not hungry now," said he, "you will be by the time 

 old Port gets these song birds dressed and cooked." 



John Atwood and I took Port's boat and put out his 

 set lines for eels, in order to have fish for breakfast. 

 These lines were of quarter-inch cord, reaching from 

 bank to bank. At every two feet was a one-foot snood 

 tied with a "bow-timber hitch," dropping only one foot 

 below. This enabled the fisher to snatch a snood loose 

 and drop it in the boat, eel or no eel; but the beauty of 

 Tyler's rig was the eyed hooks with a knot above and 

 one below, which prevented an eel from unlaying the 

 snood and breaking it strand by strand, merely turning 

 the hook as if on a swivel. There is no patent on it. 



The quawks were roasted when we returned after 

 putting out the eel lines in several places, and the fact 

 that we had eaten one supper did not prevent us from 

 eating of the strange birds, and they were not a bit fishy, 

 as one would suppose, but were tender and good. Port 

 had set up a wind break and heat reflector by the fire 

 and hung the birds on strings, so that they kept twisting 

 round. When we came to crawl into the hay for the 

 night Billy Shaw seemed a bit nervous and inquired if 

 there might be rats about, and that started stories of 

 enormous rats that lived along the creek and in the 

 barns, all for his benefit. The little owl would whinny 

 not unlike a horse, and Billy was evidently uneasy until 

 Miller ran a stick in a wiggling way into the hay and said 

 something about snakes. Then Billy vowed that he would 



