238 RECREATION 
alone. Neither of my two dogs will hunt 
for any one else but me. And so I will hire 
a guide for you who has a good dog and 
turn you over to him. Then, that our hunt 
may be the more interesting, I propose 
that we have a little contest. The law 
allows us each a total of thirty-six birds, 
I think it is, for the season. I propose to 
you, sir, to wager one of my dogs against, 
say, yore gun that I will get more birds in 
the five days we are to hunt than you, 
and I’ll give you a handicap of six birds, 
just to show that there is nothing small 
about a sportsman from Ohio.’ 
“It was up to me again, and the only 
thing I could do was be graceful and _pro- 
claim my pleasure. But, good Lord, I 
couldn’t afford to lose my gun; I couldn’t 
replace it under eighty dollars, and me in 
the business. 
“T hadn’t gone a mile with that guide 
the next day before I knew he had been 
well hired, and as my pocketbook didn’t 
stack up for shucks alongside of the 
Doctor’s, I resorted to Livereating John- 
son’s tactics. I shore did buffalo him, 
if I do have to say it myself, for going into 
a deal to do me, and I sent him and his dog 
hunting another customer, I tell you. A 
nice sort of a guide, him, to hire himself 
out to hinder a man instead of help him. 
“Along about noon I was sitting down 
’way up the side of a big hill, m some 
beech woods, eating my lunch, and with 
never a bird and my knuckles skinned from 
hammering that guide. And I heard a tip- 
tip-tip in the leaves, like a turkey runs 
when he ain’t scared, and when I looked 
around there was a little black dog, a little 
larger than a fox-terrier, and with a bushy 
tail curled over his back like a Spitz has. 
He stopped and looked at me, and I in- 
vited him to come right up and take lunch 
with me. He was a bit shy, but he was 
shore hungry. Well, we had a nice time, 
him and me, with the sandwiches and the 
pie; and when we got through and I set 
there a taking my ease, blamed if he didn’t 
set, too, kind of waiting for me to get up 
and go on. 
“Tt didn’t seem to me that that little dog 
had any home, particular; and when I got 
up and picked up the gun, you’d ought to 
seen him! Say, that little mut was a regular 
jo-dandy of a partridge dog! Honest, he 
waltzed me right off and put up a partridge 
for me, which I got, you bet. 
““We stopped right there and held a little 
mutual admiration meeting and I patted 
Mr. Mut’s ribs till they must have been 
shore sore. Gee, that grouse did look fine, 
with his old fan tail sticking out of the 
back pocket of my coat. 
“The next grouse we got right along 
that same cow-path; he was in the top of a 
big basswood that had fell across the path, 
not more than a hundred yards from 
where we got the first one, and it took the 
second barrel to stop him; but I had my 
blood up and I said ‘a dead bird is a shore 
dead one, in a match,’ said IL. 
‘Say, I was finding out something about 
quick shooting. —Them grouse would bounce 
up twenty feet or so as though there was 
dynamite under them, and then, zip, they’d 
dive for shelter like yore hat blowing off 
on a ferry-boat. And you’d better not shoot 
at their tail just because it was nice and big. 
You had to lead ’em a plenty, and give ’em 
the whole load. And that little dog would 
drop the minute a bird jumped, and stay 
there till the gun cracked; then he’d go in 
for feathers. But he didn’t retrieve well. 
“We got one more bird, the dog and me. 
It was down in a little dark ravine, where 
there was a little spring that I was going 
to to get a drink. I nearly lost that one, 
for it was a long shot and the bird ran some 
after he dropped; but the dog got him. 
“By that time it was getting late in the 
afternoon and I was dead tired, having 
hiked near twelve miles, I guessed. So I 
just buckled up my pants tight, so they’d 
stay up without help, and then I made a 
lead out of my suspenders for my dog, and 
we put for town. 
‘“‘Gilder came in in a rig, in time for 
supper, and he had his five grouse. Well, 
he gave me the haw-haw all right and 
wanted to have a look at the gun—said he 
believed he was going to like it. But you 
can bet I didn’t say anything about my dog, 
which was in my room with a new collar 
and a chain on him fifteen minutes after 
I hit town. I didn’t see anything more 
of the guide, but I knew right off that Gil- 
der had had news, for he didn’t say a word 
about the guide nor ask me where I hunted; 
EE ———— ee ee we — 
