172 



RECREATION 



Nancy had naturally a sweet voice, 

 but her repertoire was limited to a few 

 camp meeting hymns. The worst of it 

 was, the voice was only heard at inter- 

 vals, for the erratic instrument went 

 off by fits and starts, and howled like 

 a demon undergoing torture. As the 

 keeper expressed it, "like it was a goin' 

 to bust its wind." 



George hinted to Nancy that it gave 

 him the nightmare, but Nancy knew 

 nothing of hints, and had often been 

 complimented on her playing, by her 

 rustic beaux, so every evening, after 

 her day's work was done, and we drew 

 near the fire, out would come that in- 

 fernal accordion, drowning even the 

 noise of the beating billows outside. 



As I was saying : Gus and I rowed 

 out in the Sound about ten miles to 

 Porpoise Island, and took position on 

 the extreme end, and surely Nature 

 intended this very spot for a blind, for 

 the island tapered off to an acute point 

 which ran far into the Sound. On the 

 end was a clump of grass that served 

 perfectly to conceal the gunner. Our 

 decoys, some 200 in number, made a 

 gallant show. Out in the Sound were 

 scattered duck, but no flocks. Taking 

 position, I directed Gus to conceal the 

 large boat higher up, and to take the 

 light skiff that we had brought in tow, 

 and make a wide detour and slowly 

 drive them toward the point. Gus 

 begged me to loan him one of my guns, 

 as he said, "to get shut of the crip- 

 ples." I promptly declined, knowing 

 that if Gus had anything that could 

 shoot, he would chase every duck 

 away, within twenty miles of the 

 Sound. 



His face fell, but he departed on his 

 errand, and soon a light breeze sprung 

 up, and I sat and watched the decoys. 

 They were beauties, made at Havre de 

 Grace, Md., and most of them were 

 new. I had placed them to ride free- 

 ly without coming in contact with 

 each other, and each duck breasted the 

 ripples like a veritable thing of life. 



Half an hour passed and I was get- 

 ting tired of doing nothing, when two 



pintails came paddling up to the de- 

 coys. I knocked them both over, but 

 as the water was five feet deep I could 

 do nothing but wait for Gus with the 

 skiff. I could see him about a mile 

 distant, lying flat in the boat, and using 

 the creeping paddles as I had instruct- 

 ed him. There were many scattered 

 ducks heading for the point; they 

 came up fearlessly, and I scored two 

 more. I could see that they had never 

 been shot at, for they had advanced 

 straight as an arrow, when disturbed 

 in their feeding. 



Again and again, little groups of 

 two to a half dozen swam fearlessly 

 up to the decoys, and in all my experi- 

 ence, I never saw the like, or had such 

 poor sport in wild fowl shooting. 



After a dozen shots the sporting 

 fever left me entirely, for in no in- 

 stance did the ducks fly; they simply 

 swam up and were shot down. There 

 was about as much exhilaration in it 

 as in sitting on the granary steps and 

 knocking over farm yard fowls as they 

 scratched for food in the ground. I 

 soon wearied of it; and amused myself 

 with trying the distance at which I 

 could kill them with double BB. 



I made some long distance shots, and 

 only wished that I had brought my 

 Winchester along, for it would have 

 been splendid practice. 



It was now well past noon, and the 

 shooting was over for the day, and 

 probably for some time; for these 

 Pamlico Sound ducks seemed to have 

 an invincible dislike to flying, and most 

 likely few remained in one locality. 



I signaled Gus to return, and getting 

 into the skiff, we picked up the game. 

 The birds were nearly all in the same 

 spot where they were when shot, for 

 there are no tides in the Sound, and no 

 perceptible current. 



Gus was made happy by my placing 

 him in the front seat and giving him 

 my light No. 10 to shoot the cripples, 

 of which there were several, and he 

 was so excited that he fired standing 

 several times, and came within an ace 

 of overturning the boat. It reminded 



