212 TOM draw's visit to pine brook. 



scent; again, before we had gathered the fruit of our 

 first volley, a dozen birds rose altogether ; again six barrels 

 bellowed across the plain, and again Tom and Harry 

 slew their shots right and left, while I, alas ! shooting too 

 quick, missed one! I know what I aver will hardly be 

 believed, but it is true, notwithstanding; a third time the 

 same thing happened, except that instead of twelve, thirty 

 or forty birds rose at the least, six of which came again to 

 earth, within, at farthest, thirty paces — making an aggre- 

 gate of eighteen shots, fired in less, assuredly, than so 

 many minutes, and seventeen birds fairly brought to bag. 

 These pocketed, by twos and threes Van Dyne had marked 

 the others down in every quarter of the meadow — and, 

 breaking off, singly or in pairs, we worked our will with 

 them. So hard, however, did they lie, that many could 

 not be got up again at all. In one instance I had marked 

 four, as I thought, to a yard, between three little stakes, 

 placed in the angles of a plat, not above twenty paces in 

 diameter — taking Van Dyne along with me, who is so 

 capital a marker that for a dead bird I would back him 

 against any retriever living — I went without a dog to 

 walk them up. But no! I quartered the ground, re- 

 quartered it, crossed it a third time, and was just quitting 

 it despairingly, when a loud shout from John, a pace or 

 two behind, warned me they were on wing! Two crossed 

 me to the right, one of which dropped to John's Queen 

 Ann almost as soon as I caught sight of them, and one 

 to my left. At the latter I shot first, and, without waiting 

 to note the effect of my discharge, turned quickly and 

 fired at the other. Him I saw drop, for the smoke drifted, 

 and as I turned my head, I scarcely can believe it now, 

 I saw my first bird falling. I concluded he had fluttered 

 on some small space, but John Van Dyne swears point 

 blank that I shot so quick that the second bird was on the 

 ground before the first had reached it. In this — a solitary 

 case, however — I fear John's famed veracity will scarce 

 obtain for him, that credit, or for me that renown, to 

 which he deemed us both entitled. 



Before eleven of the clock, we had bagged forty-seven 

 birds; we sat down in the shade of the big pin oak, and 

 fed deliciously, and went our way rejoicing, toward the 

 upper meadows, fully expecting that before returning we 

 should have doubled our bag. 



