AN EXCITING FORENOON 



had been a younger hand at the business, I could 

 probably have decided the question on the in- 

 stant. Given a certain measure of inexperience, 

 and certainty is about the easiest thing in the 

 world. Why bother one's head with second 

 thoughts ? What a man knows, he knows, and 

 there 's an end on 't. Alas, I have found that too 

 often what a man knows he does n't know ; and 

 so with age comes slowness of decision with all 

 its disagreeable concomitants. 



At last I determined to hear the bird's voice. 

 That might furnish a clue, though I believed 

 that the two species were practically one in this 

 respect also. In any event, the experiment was 

 worth trying. I stepped briskly forward, there- 

 fore, with as much bluster as I could conveniently 

 command on so narrow a stage, expecting the 

 bird as a reasonable being to take alarm and make 

 off, giving voice as it flew. 



But even when I had come as near it as I 

 could without wading into the black, muddy 

 water, the long-legged creature simply stalked a 

 little farther out, and, having nodded a few times 

 after its manner, resumed its feeding. " Who 's 

 afraid ? " it seemed to say. " You 're only fool- 

 ing." 



Well, a half-minute or so passed ; my glance 

 fell upon a narrow mud-bar, say thirty or forty 

 6i 



