ii 4 SPORTS AND ANECDOTES. 



as geese ; in fact, I had shot into a lot of tame ducks 

 which ought to have been in bed asleep, but instead 

 had wandered away on to the shore, far from any 

 house. 



However, the noise that the cripples made flapping 

 and quacking over the mud had disturbed one of the 

 old wives, and we saw a light in a house on shore, 

 and a voice, in by no means a pleasing tone, holloaing 

 out, " What are ye doing with my decks, ye scoundrels ! 

 Let my decks alone, I tell ye ! I ken fine where ye 

 come from ye come from Beauley ; I ken ye fine, ye 

 blackguards ! " And all the time we were receiving 

 her blessings she was to be heard tramping towards 

 us through the mud. We, however, got quietly back 

 into the punt. I said to my man, " Don't say a word, 

 or make the slightest noise," and we shoved off and 

 floated down with the tide towards my yacht, leaving 

 the irate old lady to imagine, if she chose, that we had 

 gone back to Beauley. 



I was really sorry to think that I had made such a 

 mistake, but it was the ducks' fault, not mine. They 

 had no business to be almost a mile from home on 

 a dark night. 



In addition to the "twa young swarns" there 

 were seven others, of different kinds, some half-bred 



