TOLING FOE DUCKS IN CALIFORNIA. 231 



down into the saloon, and all his friends who came to see 

 him were immediately " cocktailed/'' He did this for 

 three consecutive days and nights without stirring a peg, 

 till one of his friends asked him if he was not going out 

 to take a look at the city. " No sirree, I guess I have 

 come to New York for seven days to loaf and see my 

 friends, and I means to do it." At the end of the week 

 he drove straight to the steamboat again and went back 

 to Frisco. When his friends asked him how he liked 

 New York, he replied, ^^You bet it^s a bully place; I 

 had the gayest old time there seeing my friends, bet 

 yer life V 



The last two days of our week we shot, I really 

 believe, a cartload of ducks. The first day we toled 

 three bands of ducks during the day from three different 

 batteries, and flighted during the night. Another party 

 came down from Frisco and joined us, and so we quite 

 lined the sandbanks and regularly fusilladed all the 

 evening. Our parties joined waggons, and the night was 

 so glorious (oh, those Indian summer nights of Cali- 

 fornia !) that we determined to camp it out. We soon 

 rigged up a first-rate tent under the waggons with 

 blankets and horsecloths, and set the tea-kettle going. 

 Among the party who came down were the Misses S., 

 two charming young ladies from Marysville. They, 

 assisted by their slave, yours truly, set out the supper — 

 none of your slapjack business, but a really good " square 

 meal" of cold venison pasty, turkey an foie grasj Madame 

 Clicquot and Cutter. After supper Frangois went to 

 the shanty and came back with a concertina, and to its 

 strains we kept up the light fantastic under difficulties ; 

 it^s difficult waltzing in wild oats. However, we tabooed 

 round dances and got on very well with quadrilles and 



