Where Silence Is Eloquent 



lire may seek and find his mate when no such 

 "call of the blood" urges him, when he comes 

 with his life in his hand in response to some finer 

 or nobler motive, something perhaps akin to loy- 

 alty, which is the sum of all virtues. Witness the 

 following: 



A friend of mine was hunting one October day 

 when his shot wing-tipped a quail, apparently the 

 old female of the flock, which his dog caught and 

 brought to him almost uninjured. What to do 

 was the next question. It is easy, because 

 thoughtless, to cut down a bird in swift flight ; but 

 when the little thing nestles down in your hand 

 or tries to hide under your fingers ; when you can 

 feel its rapid heart-beat, and its eyes are big and 

 wondrous bright, well, then some hunters bite the 

 head, and some wring the neck, and some would 

 for the moment as lief be shot as to do either. 

 So to avoid the difficulty my friend put the quail 

 carefully away in a pocket of his hunting-coat, 

 and brought her home with some vague idea of 

 taming her, and some dream of trapping a mate 

 in the spring and perhaps raising some little bob- 

 whites of his own. At night he put the captive 

 into a coop just inside the barn window, which 

 was open wide enough to admit air but not a 

 prowling cat; for he was already beginning to 

 learn that a quail is a most lovable little pet, and 



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