and the Maritime Provinces. 203 



This explanation did not seem to be accepted as a postulate by Madam, 

 who presently dropped into a brown study. Directly the brown became a 

 shade lighter, and she remarked with some vigor, " For my part, I don't 

 see of what use the dog is anyway." 



"Neither do I," said I. 



Just then the man shot again. He was so far off by this time that we 

 could see the smoke from the gun an instant before we heard the report. 

 The air was still and the report distinct, and a glow from the western sun 

 threw the outlines of the sportsman and his dog into sharp silhouettes 

 against the sky whenever they topped a sand ridge. Wife said the dog's 

 figure looked like a mastiff. We noticed that whenever the man raised his 

 gun to shoot, the dog sat down. 



" He is trained to drop to shot," I exclaimed. 



" That 's all right," retorted madam, " but I don't see any birds drop " ! 



At this juncture the fusillade increased, and I insisted that the man 

 must be having great sport, and that where there were so many shots, there 

 must be some birds. "That man cannot afford to waste ammunition 

 recklessly," I contended. " Why, those cartridges cost at least two and a 

 half cents apiece, and he has fired at least two dozen times." 



Then, for at least ten minutes, we watched the proceedings in silence. 

 There were no other persons excepting ourselves on the south veranda. 

 All the hotel guests seemed to have chosen the shady side. The air was 

 so still that we could hear the throbs of the surf upon the beach three 

 miles away, and we gratefully sniffed the odor of the salt sea air, which 

 seemed fresher and more invigorating every time a wave broke. At the 

 same time the reports of the gun punctuated the rhythmic cadences like 

 cesural pauses in a scanning of spondaic lines. Frequently both barrels 

 went off in quick succession. We noticed also that a second sportsman 

 had taken the field. 



"That's business," I said. "Now they will keep the birds moving, 

 and what one misses the other will get. They will drive the birds to each 

 other. I dare say the day's bag will trump Martin's Point on Currituck 

 every time." 



Then I began to grow restless. I never felt so restless in my life. 

 And I began to feel more than envious of the sport from which I was 

 debarred. 



" Just my beastly luck not to have my gun " ! I murmured. " Never 

 did have my gun at the right time. Here is the best day for shore birds I 

 ever saw, and my gun five hundred miles away. But who would have 

 thought of bringing a gun at this season of the year ? Such a chance 

 don't happen once in a dog's age. You see, yesterday's blow has just 

 covered the coast with flotsam, and the whole landwash is lined with food. 

 Don't you notice the mackerel gulls a- flying? That 's a sure sign. Fisher- 



