122 WILD FOWL SHOOTING. 



lay no claims to greatness. Yoiir claims, no doubt, are 

 those of innate modesty, wliile mine are 



" Well ! well ! come with me, and we will get things 

 ready for an early start, as we have fire to seven miles 

 to go, and must be in the marsh at break of day. You 

 can get shells at the gunsmith's loaded, or, if you prefer, 

 load them yourself. At any rate take plenty. Better 

 bring back twenty, than run short. No matter what 

 your success may have been in any one day, if you allow 

 yourself to run short a few shells, the pleasure derived 

 is entirely lost, by reason of the chagrin and disappoint- 

 ment felt when out of shells. You will find it poor con- 

 solation indeed to think how many shells you have left 

 at home, and ' might have brought dlong.' Yes, you 

 will feel that you might have done a great many things — 

 and as you see the mallards flopping over your decoys, 

 then alighting within twenty yards, saying to you deri- 

 sively, ' M'amph ! ' you will go down in your pockets for 

 the twentieth time feeling for the shell that isn't there, 

 then grate your teeth, smother an exclamation,, forcible 

 but not elegant, appropriate but not refined, and you 

 will arise in your blind filled with disgust, as you see 

 the mallard rise and leisurely fly away, while over the 

 marsh his itiocking cry reaches you, ' M'amph,' 

 'm'amph.' Then, through your brain, fast fleeting 

 thoughts pursue one another, and this one always at 

 the head — 'how thoughtless I was in not bringing 

 more shells ! ' Then you think you might possibly 

 have been a bigger fool, — but you doubt it emphatically. 



" The shooting to-morrow will be mostly over decoys. 

 Your gun throws No. 6 shot, close and strong, and that 

 is the size you had better shoot. That size you will 

 find is always right for ducks in a choke bore gun ; be- 



