GENERAL INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 19 



quail, there was hardly a man there who could 

 kill them except myself. Lots of men used to 

 go out to see me shoot. There was one, a great 

 hunter of deer and turkeys, with whom I became 

 very intimate. At first he laughed at me when 

 he saw me loading with No. 8 shot. " That wunt 

 kill nothin', stranger," said he. " What little I 

 do at quail I do with No. 1 shot, and - for 

 prairie chicken I always use BBs. You can't stop 

 'cm with anything lighter." 



But he changed his opinion when he found by 

 experience that I could kill ten to his one, and then 

 it was the old story of the fox and grapes. '• Darn 

 the little creatures, I say ! " he exclaimed ; " I 

 got no use for 'em anyhow ! " At that time I 

 used ; to stint myself, in quail-shooting time to 

 twenty-five brace a day. When I had got them, I 

 gave over for the day. Often when I was shoot- 

 ing quail in the oak barrens two or three deer 

 have got up close to me. I shot some turkeys ; 

 but my bag was mostly made up of quail and 

 pinnated grouse in the fall, and of snipe in the 

 spring. There were snipe in the fall too, but not 

 so many. Ducks and geese were plentiful in the 

 fall and spring, but I did not go after them much 

 at that time. I had no wagon and team, and a 



