Terms, Five Dollars a Year. 

 Ten Cents a Copy. 



\ 



NEW YORK, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1875. 



j Volume 5, Number 8. 



1 17 Chatham St. (City Hall Sqr.) 



For Forest and Stream. 



$£fllg Jfrnoqgtht $hickffl$. 



THE Professor and S. E. J. own a large farm in the 

 southern part of the State, at Grand Meadow, and 

 they find it absolutely necessary to take a trip down there 

 each year to see how it is getting along. The farm boasts 

 a horse and a barn, and a well, but no tenant, for this 

 last reason it needs all the more looking after; for the 

 the geese and the chickens, and the sand hill cranes of 

 those parts are very lawless and unmanageable. Polly has 

 been there twice and knows all about it. During one of 

 these visits occurred the only instance on record of Polly's 

 failure upon ducks. The Professor and S. E. J., after 

 much banging, had destroyed two little divers in a small 

 prairie pond. Polly brought out one, but the other 

 she absolutely refused to bring. She would swim out to it 

 and smell at it contemptuously, but nothing more. They 

 were not her kind of ducks. Polly, you were a sensible 

 dog, a smart dog, and with all this an exceedingly active 

 dog, as I have before demonstrated. 



Manifold invitations had 1 received to accompany them 

 upon these visitations; now they were inclined to compel. 

 A gentlemen of our acquaintance whose chief qualification 

 was the possession of a steady pointer, we expected to be 

 of the party, but at the last moment he failed us and we de- 

 cided to go with Polly, for the farm had to be seen to. 



"Converse" had written that the chickens were very 

 troublesome. Polly had a personal acquaintance with 

 every chicken in that part of the State— I knew she would 

 be delighted to show us around. We thought in the prai- 

 rie grass we could manage to shoot over her. 



Experience is a great thing, but it requires so much of it 

 to produce any permanent effect. So September 1st we 

 three, with Polly, who made an important fourth, took 

 the seven o'clock A. M. train for the South — rolled along 

 through a. general landscape of vast wheat stubbles and 

 steam threshers, down through Owatonna to Ramsey, then 

 the Southern Minnesota East about 40 miles. Two o'clock 

 P. M. we reached Moro Station. This was our objective 

 point, and here the conductor put us off with our plunder, 

 plump into the high prairie grass; not a tree or a fence, 

 and but one house in sight; the station as yet consisted of 

 an imaginary point upon this iron road, where the grass 

 grew a little higher than it did anywhere else. Principal 

 inhabitants, three forlorn sportsmen and a white dog. A 

 chicken started ahead of the engine as the train stopped; 

 we had marked him down some thirty rods off. Changing 

 my clothes, Polly and I went for him, but a very few min- 

 utes demonstrated to my satisfaction that neither man nor 

 dog could hunt under such a broiling sun, so we returned 

 to our companions, who looked very much like two big 

 frogs lost in the prairie grass . Converse was to send a 

 team for us, so we waited patiently, helpless as thousii 

 stranded upon a rock in mid-ocean. In the course of half 

 an hour much to our relief over the knoll appeared a wagon 

 with attachments— soon it drove up, and we packed in. A 

 three-mile ride over an unbroken prairie with an occasional 

 wheat stubble in the distance, and we arrived at Converse's 

 one story mansion, situated close to the timber. Con- 

 verse is a live Yankee, herds cattle and horses at so much 

 a head— about five dollars for the season I believe— had 

 about five hundred animals in his charge including a cow 

 who had just been bitten by a rattlesnake. He raises 

 wheat for diversion, and the threshers were now at work, 

 putting through the wheat crop. At table we had just 

 sixteen men, including ourselves, and not including Polly, 

 whom we always shut up in the parlor at meal times. 



As the sun lowered, the Professor and myself went out 

 back of the house to a small creek. I pointed out a soli- 

 tary sandpiper about ten rods distant. Says the Professor: 

 "I see a white spot on that black mud— is that it?" "Cer- 

 tainly it is," I replied. I don't believe there is another 

 white spot in this whole section. After grave delibera- 

 tion and several trigonometrical calculations, he fired; the 

 sandpiper rose up and coming over, I killed him. The 

 Professor affirmed that he had killed his bird; what 



grounds he had to think so I could not imagine, but going 

 down to investigate, sure enough he found it lying dead 

 upon the mud. "What do you mean," enquired he, "by 

 calling this bird a 'solitary sandpiper,' when there was 

 another with him? I think you had better get apiece of 

 sand paper and polish up your ornithology." At the report 

 of our guns six wood ducks started out of the creek. 

 They went down before going far; we struggled after them 

 through the high grass and reeds, and as they rose I killed 

 two. They turned back, giving me two more shots. The 

 first one came down dead, the other going off, hit very hard, 

 taking along the creek towards the prairie and out of sight. 

 Polly retrieved the three, and we worked out and towards 

 the higher ground, it still being so fearfully hot that we 

 were completely exhausted. There we found S. E. J., 

 and as good luck would have it, he had seen the duck, and 

 marked it down in a thick mat of bushes in the middle of 

 the creek. After getting the bearings I went down 

 with the dog. The clump was about twenty feet in diam- 

 eter, and so thick that Polly, who immediately scented the 

 bird, swam whining around it twice before she could 

 force an entrance, but go in she did, and brought out the 

 bird dead. We then lay down behind a knoll and wished 

 for it to become cooler. We then went to work at the 

 stubbles, but for some reason did not find many chickens 

 — four or five odd ones and one small covey. The Pro- 

 fessor killed three, S. E. J. one, and I killed six. As we 

 were returning to the house in the dusk of the evening a 

 duck came flying over, which I dropped in a cornfield ap- 

 parently quite dead. Polly went in to retrieve, when I 

 heard a great flapping, and off went the duck to all ap- 

 pearance as wild as ever. 



The next morning was cloudy — looked like rain. Con- 

 verse provided us with a span of jackasses, and a heavy 

 lumber wagon, with which we were to do as we pleased. S. E. 

 J., who had sprained his ankle and could not work, was to do 

 the driving. As we were getting ready one of the boys came 

 in and said a large lot of chickens had just dropped in the 

 stubble near the house. I went there. Three rose, giving 

 me a double shot and two birds. Upon the next stubble, 

 a strip of high grass lying between, I saw four or five sit- 

 ting on the wheat shocks. I crept through the grass, but 

 when I rose up near enough, all had disappeared. I walked 

 out into the stubble field when up went at least thirty birds, 

 all around me. I missed both barrels, firing too quick, but 

 getting in a shell dropped one who had not started until a 

 moment after the others. I was flurried, I must confess — 

 there is something to say the least, surprising, to have a 

 large covey of chickens flap up under your feet out of a 

 stubble where there does not seem to be cover enough to 

 conceal a quail. They flew across the prairie half a mile 

 to a patch of poplars and hazel bushes. I walked right 

 in among them and they got up on all sides, giving me fine 

 shots as fast as I could get in the shells. Three went down 

 dead, the fourth hard hit, at twenty rods, the other missed. 

 The covey took a line directly back. When I got there I 

 found S. E. J., the Professor, Polly and the jackasses. 

 They had seen the chickens, but could not mark them on 

 account of an intervening swell. I took Polly and searched 

 for them half an hour, and would eventually have found 

 them and had good shooting, but S. E. J. was anxious to 

 get over to the farm where the birds were much more 

 plenty than here. I foolishly consented, and we drove off 

 across the prairie. No road, but they knew the direction. 

 One of our jackasses got the rein under its tail and not one 

 of us dared to pull it out, for the critters had a reputa- 

 tion for kicking, and we feared we should touch him off. 

 So there we left it. About three miles, and we reached the 

 farm. Converse had raised a crop of wheat upon a por- 

 tion of it, and" we went over the stubble, starting just 

 three chickens. I killed one; the other which I fired at 

 was hit hard— he flew forty rods, towered, and down he 

 went. We marked the spot, but could not find him. We 

 then explored the prairie around, collecting "rosin gum" 

 and shooting hawks which at any time if we crouched 

 down would come sailing along over to examine us. Not 

 another chicken could we find— a heavy thunder storm was 

 ^ coming up from the south and S. E. J. thought it would be 



prudent for us to retrace. It grew rapidly darker and 

 darker; the thunder louder and louder; the lightning 

 brighter and more frequent. An old cock chicken 

 started ahead of the team and settled in the grass twenty 

 rods off. I went after him, cut him down as he rose, ran 

 back to the wagon and pitched him under the seat just in . 

 time to get him in out of the wet, for the rain soon came 

 down in torrents with plenty of thunder and lightning for 

 accompaniment. S. E. J. and myself sat upon the seat 

 with the Professor in the bottom of the wagon.* He wore 

 a thin linen coat, and I insisted upon his taking my cordu- 

 roy. He took it, but was not thankful— said all the water 

 ran down his neck and collected in the coat tail and things 

 — like sitting in a spring. Where we were it was very much 

 like sitting in a river. But our guns, ammunition and 

 chickens were covered up snug and we did not pity anybody, 

 though the water felt very cold indeed. The off jackass 

 still kept his tail tight down upon the rein — at every clap 

 of thunder giving it an extra spasmodic squeeze. Passing 

 a stubble a pair of sandhill cranes rose not ten rods away 

 —the first I had ever seen. A mile and a half more 

 through the heavy rain, and it held up just exactly as we 

 drove into the yard at Converse's. Dinner was ready 

 — had the game which we had killed the day before — but 

 from the wonderful effects of cooking, we couldn't tell an 

 old chicken from a young — a chicken from a duck, or any 

 of them from horse flesh, which they all resembled — 

 tough as though made of wire. The Professor twisted 

 out two teeth, whereat he was delighted. "See there," 

 said he, "what a saving— nothing to pay the dentist fr>r 

 pulling or filling. What a comfort to have them torn out 

 without the dread of expecting it." 



We had changed our clothes, and after dinner S. E. J. 

 and the Professor were discussing business and seven-up 

 with Converse. I lay upon the lounge trying to sleep, but* 

 working like an automatic wind mill in my frantic efforts 

 to drive off the flies. One who has never been West as far 

 as Chicago knows nothing about flies. They swarm in 

 masses through the whole prairie country, a thousand times 

 thicker than they ever did in Egypt. 



The rattlesnake-bitten cow had died. Converse said the 

 men often found the small moccasin snake under the wheat 

 shocks when pitching them upon the wagon to carry to the 

 thresher — sometimes as many as three or four in a day. 

 They did not appear to mind them at all, but it made me 

 nervous. S. E. J. said nothing, but I noticed after this 

 that his ankle did not get better as fast as it should have 

 done. One of the herders gave me half a dozen rattles 

 which I stowed in one of my boxes. 



Two o'clock— showering, but no heavy rain just now. 

 One of the men who has come in says two sandhill cranes 

 have just gone down upon a wheat stubble half a mile off. 

 I went up stairs, and with my opera glass could make them 

 out near some wheat stacks, but alas, I had nothing to wear. 

 The suit i wore in the morning was soaked through, and 

 corduroy don't dry in a minute— and as yet it had not dried 

 at all— everything was wet out of doors, and more rain 

 coming. I did not dare to wet my reserve suit; must have 

 dry clothes to come home in. Not one among those six- 

 teen men had an extra pair of breeches. At last, after 

 much and determined entreaty, Mrs. Converse hunted up 

 a pair of old overalls in a frightful state of dilapidation. 

 I took them, and with the white pieces of cotton cloth 

 which I had brought with me to clean out my gun, I put a 

 big patch upon each knee, and a bigger one on the seat. 

 Now the things would hold together, and were ornamental 

 at the same time. The Professor was inclined to be face- 

 tious; asked me if I "had been sitting in a flour barrel, or 

 on my knees in a flour barrel, or both at once? Don't ' let 

 the Indians see you," said he, "those patches would make 

 conspicuous marks, a bullet through one of them es- 

 pecially the big one, would make you hop, or stop hop- 

 ping. Why don't you fill in the dark places with more 

 white— the cranes would take you for their long lost 

 brother, with a strawberry mark on his arm. Try a frog 

 Frank; I believe they always swallow them whole." 



I gravely replied, "my dear ^Sir, your craneological de- 

 velopment in imperfect." 



