322 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Oct. 22, 1898. 
In the Louisiana Lowlands*— V. 
BY FRED MATHER. 
[ Continued from last week.} 
Doctor Gordon found that the Colonel had merely 
sprained his ankle, but that it might take a month for 
him to recover, and forbade him to indulge in another 
bear hunt, even in the saddle, until he gave permission, 
and after our errand of mercy in caring for the 
wounded dogs we spent the evening in the Colonel s 
room, where the Colonel insisted on my repeating all 
the stories I had entertained him with, for the benefit 
of the Doctor, who, much to my surprise, not only en- 
joyed them, but related a few himself. His excessively 
formal manner, to which I took a dislike at first, thawed 
out considerably, and it was evidently not affected. 
"Sir," said he to me, "I am very glad that you have 
decided to remain here a few days longer, and I hope to 
have the pleasure of shooting with you, sir. I came 
down into this country to visit old friends and enjoy 
a little hunting, and only arrived yesterday. I had 
notified the Colonel that I would drop in on him this 
evening, and my messenger brought back word that the 
Colonel was on a bear hunt, and had been injured^ and 
that is how I happened here when you arrived, sir." 
My problem now was to decide on the _ Doctor's 
nativity. In those days my ear was good on dialect and 
accent. Strictly speaking, the Americans have no dia- 
lects, but there are several accents, forms of pronounc- 
ing words and the use of local phrases that are peculiar 
to certain districts. This is not so much the case now 
as it was years ago. I must solve this riddle as a 
pleasant task, for no doubt the Doctor would tell me all 
about it if asked. He "came down into this country," 
therefore his home was north of it. His name denoted 
that some ancestor was "frae the land o' cakes," but 
Dr. Gordon was evidently born in America, but where? 
There seemed no marked accent to betray him. 
The Colonel was lying easily, with his injured ankle 
well bandaged and protected from the weight of the 
bed covering by a light frame. Occasionally the Doc- 
lor would remove the wrappings, wet the ankle with 
some embrocation and again wrap it up. Then he would 
prepare something for the patient to take internally, 
and, in order to be sure that it was correctly com- 
pounded, he took a dose himself and insisted on my 
doing the same, "for fear," as he said, "your ankle might 
be sprained." There was lemon and sugar in the pre- 
scription, and it was not in the least disagreeable. 
The talk had run in various directions, shooting dif- 
ferent kinds of game, fishing for many different fishes, in 
different States and Territories, when, after applying 
another soothing embrocation, the Colonel suggested: 
"Tell us about that swan shooting trip. Doctor. I 
know that our friend will like to hear it." 
"Certainly," said T. 
The Doctor's Story. 
"It's not much of a story," the Doctor remarked, "but 
there's one foot of the swan, and what became of the 
other I never could find out." And he drew from his 
pocket a pouch made of a swan's foot. The nails were 
left on, the bones taken out, and the skin split between 
the toes and the edges, and then tanned. A silken top 
with a shirr-string had been added, and it was a most 
unique tobacco pouch. 
"Was that all that you got from that swan?" 
"Yes, he left me that as a memento. You see it was 
this way. It was in the first year of the. reign of Presi- 
dent Buchanan; let's see, that was in 1857 — yes, sir, 1857. 
I was then thirty years old, and had just graduated, but 
was in no hurry to settle down to the practice of medi- 
cine, because my parents were well off, and it was not 
necessary that I should. So, in the autumn of that year 
I joined two young sawbones, whose needs were no 
more pressing than mine, on a duck shooting trip to 
Beaufort, on Pimlico Sound, in North Carolina. We 
tried the swamps about Pantego for ducks and frogs 
without getting many ducks, for they were difficult of 
approach, but the frogs were large and fine. Then we 
shifted to the Pago River, and only found a lot of blue- 
peters and other worthless birds, and we reckoned it was 
best to go down on Pamlico Sound, where the natives 
said that not only ducks and geese were feeding, but 
swans also. We hired a native, who was a fisherman, 
gunner, oysterman and beach-comber, as the season or 
the occasion required, to take us in his little sloop, which 
had a little cabin in it. He was to sail us where we 
wanted to go, provide fresh water, and do the cooking 
when necessary for two dollars a day, which was more 
of a sum then than now. We laid in provisions, such as 
we could get, ham, bacon, eggs, biscuits, etc., and 
started in the good sloop Eliza Jane, Captain Bill Smith. 
He had a quantity of fishing tackle and wooden decoy 
ducks, and the outfit was complete. 
"We sailed about for a week, snooting from blinds on 
the islands, and trading ducks for provisions at the little 
settlements, where a hen's egg was worth as much as a 
duck, but that didn't trouble us. Sims fell overboard 
while landing a big fish, and Abbott tried to rescue him 
witli a boat hook, but only rescued the seat of his 
trousers; Capt. Bill did the rest by lying on the deck and 
catching his hand. Fortunately the Captain was a 
bachelor, and was handy with the needle. A week passed 
and found us in a blind on Roanoke Island an hour be- 
fore daylight, and a heavy fog covering everything. It 
was very still, and we could hear movements of fowl on 
the water near its. 
"An hour is a long time in a blind on a raw morning, 
but we kept perfectly still, for Capt. Bill had whispered 
'swans.' His practiced ear had detected some sound 
that ours did not. Just as the sun came up a puff of 
south wind suddenly lifted the fog high enough from 
the water to show a flock of swans at a long shot that 
were startled_ at finding themselves so near shore, and 
were swimming away. Four double guns sent mes- 
sengers after them, and the flock started to take wing, 
but one lay on its side in the water, apparently dead. I 
jumped into the skiff and Capt. Bill rowed me out. The 
flock was pounding its great wings on the water a 
quarter of a mile away, for it takes a swan a long time 
to get on the wing, and I was watching them gradually 
rise when Bill said: 'Take him in.' A leg lay stretched 
toward me, and I caught it and began pulling. At 
this the huge bird gave a flop, left' its foot and part of its 
leg in my hand, and at the same time struck me in the 
eye with' the tip of its wing, righted itself and started 
off after its fellows. And not a gun in the boat! I 
could not have used one, for my eye pained me so much, 
but Bill spoke feelingly on the subject, much as an army 
mule-driver does when the pontoons are stuck in the 
mud. As we neared shore he called out: 'Boys, Gordon 
didn't want a whole swan, so he only brought in a 
drumstick.' Oh! the pain in that eye, and the other 
was weeping so with sympathy that I had to be led 
ashore. Cold-water applications were the best that could 
be done in that place to keep down inflammation, and 
when my two medical friends gave the order to start for 
home I knew that the case was serious. I lost an eye, but 
gained a tobacco pouch. My friends decided that the 
swan's leg had been broken many days before, and was 
only hanging by the skin, and that a shot from our guns 
had struck it in the head and stunned it. That seemed 
to be a reasonable explanation, and we accepted it." 
We all examined the pouch again, as now it had a 
history, and I discovered that a date had been written 
on it. but was now indistinct. I had noticed the Doc- 
tor's glass eye when we first met, but it was only to be 
noticed in certain lights and in some expressions of 
his countenance. 
I had followed his story closely, watching every word 
)or an accent that would betray his nativity, and the 
result was: He pronounced the President's name after 
the Virginia fashion "Buck-hannon." and not "Bewean- 
non." as Northern men do. He said "well off" instead 
of "wealthy," and that's New England. "Autumn" in- 
stead of "fall," English and perhaps parts of the South. 
He said "Bewfort" and not "Bowfort" when he spoke 
of Beaufort; that's Carolinian. He "reckoned," which 
is Western, and called coots "blue-peters," but that's a 
local name along the sounds where he was shooting. 
The problem Avas not solved. 
The Colonei's Story. 
After the Doctor had finished the tale of the swan's 
foot and the lost eye, he at once attended to his pro- 
fessional duties, bathed the ankle, bandaged it, and 
administered the internal medicine. The patient was 
propped up in bed, and said: "The Doctor is a philo- 
sopher, who takes things as they come, and doesn't 
worry about them after the temporary pain has past. His 
swan's foot pouch is unique and useful, but few men 
would care to make the exchange he speaks of in such 
a light manner." 
"One might as well speak lightly of it," replied the 
"Doctor, "for the thing was done, and anything I might 
say to-day could not alter the fact, If I had been con- 
sulted about the trade before it was consumated, it is 
probable that I would have declined the offer of a 
single swan's foot for an eye, and might have demanded 
a whole swan, or a thousand swans, the number being 
based upon the day's market quotations of swans and 
eyes. The exchange was not profitable to me, and it 
is doubtful if the swan gained much, but when a trans- 
action is closed, as my eye was, and there is no chance 
of reversing the conditions, then I believe in taking it 
as one does the every-day ills of life which are for- 
gotten on the morrow." 
"In other words," said I, "the Doctor does not be- 
lieve in wasting tears over a pail of spilled milk when 
the grocer will sell you cans of the condensed article, if 
you have the price." 
"Exactly so," the Colonel replied, "but all men's minds 
are not built on the Mark Tapley model." And he was 
silent for some minutes. I fancied that he was thinking 
of his son George, who was killed before Atlanta, and 
his younger son, Terrill, who was wounded at Port 
Hudson and came home to die. Perhaps the Doctor 
thought this, but our eyes never met while our host was 
meditating. Soon he remarked: "It is not wise to med- 
dle with any large wild animal that has been shot and 
seems to be dead. Of course that is an axiom which 
is as plain as that two and two make four, but men 
forget it. just as Dr. Gordon did when he exchanged 
an eye for a swan's foot. We all make blunders, and I 
never grieve over them, they are personal matters that 
could have been avoided; but — " 
"Now, Colonel, let me bathe your ankle again," said 
the Doctor, and he did it; "you were going to tell us a 
storv of some kind about wounded animals; let us have 
it." 
"Yes, yes, I forgot; pardon me. It was just an ordin- 
ary deer hunt in the swamps and canebrakes. when I 
was a boy of fourteen, just the age of my grandson, 
'Jack.' who seems to be the Major's favorite. Let's 
see. that was long ago; but I remember that it was the 
year in which Andrew Jackson was installed president 
for the second time." 
"In 1833," said the Doctor. 
"It was in November of that year, and I was a boy of 
fourteen, as I said, and my father organized a "big 
deer hunt. Deer have always been plenty about here; 
but in those days there were more than now, and all the 
planters were sportsmen, and each would have a meet 
on their own estates once a year, and join in a grand 
time. There would be fifty or sixty men from perhaps 
twenty plantations, a hundred or more hounds, and some 
dogs of mixed ancestry, with drivers, body-servants and 
an assortment of darky boys of all ages, who managed 
to get leave to come on one pretext or another. On 
such a hunt there might, during the three days it usually 
lasted, be fifty or sixty deer killed. They were gathered 
by the negroes and after being dressed were taken back 
to the plantation. The dogs were fed on the neck and 
fore quarters, so that at the grand barbecue on the 
last night there was no meat wasted. 
"I had learned to use a rifle, and had obtained consent 
to go with the party on my first hunt. When I mounted 
my horse, as the head huntsman blew his horn that 
morning, I wondered why the party was 'so slow in 
starting. It seemed hours; it may have been twenty 
minutes. The dogs, strangers to each other, were fight- 
ing and the negro drivers were plying their whips, and 
all was excitement. Finally father and his friends came 
out of the house, where they had been planning the 
hunt, leaped to their saddles and we started. 
"Then I noticed that the party was divided into four 
sections, and that two of the drivers were white men, 
overseers on the plantations, who loved the hunt. As 
we were from six to ten miles west of Alexandria, on 
Red River, the parties took the four points of the 
compass. We went west to the first crossroad, and 
then turned south, and the dogs of our division were 
put out. A dog here and there bayed on a cold track, and 
the different packs of dogs seemed to separate from the 
dogs that they did not know. Here was a pack from 
one plantation in full cry on a fresh track, there were 
several hounds tonguing in an uncertain manner, while 
yonder was an occasional note from a hound on a cold 
track, but who had hopes. Men had golloped down 
this road and up that, until I was bewildered. I fully 
understood that each horseman was to use his own 
judgment and keep the roads parallel to the movements 
of the hounds when the deer were in the canebrakes or 
the thickets, keeping ahead of the hounds and only join- 
ing in the chase when the deer took to the tall timber 
or the open country, where a man could ride. We pro- 
posed to shoot the deer and not. to haA'e the hound? 
run it down, in the English fashion, hence every gentle- 
man carried a rifle. 
"I had been keeping in advance of some hounds on my 
right, which were running in brake and thicket, when I 
came to a crossroad and went down it a few rods, think- 
ing to get a running shot as the deer crossed. A great 
oak on my right, close to a rail fence, gave a grand 
shade, and here I could see the deer as he crossed the 
road within shot, as it appeared, from the voices of 
the hounds. My rifle lay easily across the saddle, and I 
felt sure of a shot on the jump, hit or miss. My horse 
had the rein on his neck, and was nibbling the grass. 
Like lightning from a clear sky, there was a crash, a 
start, and I knew no more. 
"When my senses returned I was in bed with a broken 
leg, a broken arm and the scalp from the back of my 
head torn loose, I learned that a big buck had leaped 
the fence where my horse was grazing under the oak 
and had cut his quarter with a hoof, and this naturally 
started him on a run; I was thrown and dragged, but 
fortunately I wore low shoes, and the left one, which 
hung in the stirrup while my scalp was torn, came off 
and left me in the road until I was picked up. The horse 
had given me quite a severe cut, and I spent some weeks 
in bed with the broken bones, and that's all there is of 
the story." 
Concerning Things Theatrical. 
"Colonel," said I, "your story lacks a proper ending. 
There should have been a historian there to picture the 
grand barbecue which wound up the hunt. The deep 
pit with glowing coals, which were the result of cords of 
wood burned while you were hunting, the wagon loads 
of roasting ears and all the accessories of a grand bar- 
becue, including the songs of the darkies and their 
feasting and dancing. As a wind up, that part of the 
programme is a fitting afterpiece, not exciting, like the 
hunt, but more amusing." 
"My idea exactly," the Doctor remarked, "but from 
what you say it is evident that your notions of the 
sequence of amusements is that of a past age, for noAv 
there is no afterpiece at the theater. When I was a 
boy not many years older than you, the play was the 
thing, the piece de resistance, and a farce followed as des- 
sert. At the old Bowery Theater I remember Ned For- 
rest in the tragedy of 'Jack Cade,' followed by the farce 
of 'Tend Me Five Shillings,' but if those plays were billed 
to-day the order would be reversed, and the farce would 
be called a 'curtain raiser.' There are tastes in matters 
theatrical as well as in other things; for instance, see 
how the minstrels have departed from the original 
darky songs and humor, until — " 
Here the Colonel broke in with: "The theater is all 
right if the play is good, but I went to see some min- 
strels once and found a lot of white men who had black- 
ened their faces, and one of their songs was: 
"My darling Nellie Gray, 
They have taken her away, 
And I'll never see my darling any more." 
That was tpo much for me, and I left my seat tn dis- 
gust." 
The Doctor winked his good eye at me and asked: 
"Wasn't the singing good?" 
"The voices were excellent, sir, but the sentiment! 
The idea, sir, of such a thing; making a heroine out of 
a colored woman may be all right in some places, but 
not in Louisiana, sir." And the Colonel groaned at the 
pain in his ankle, which he had disturbed, and the Doc- 
tor attended to it. 
The Doctor had, as we became acquainted, dropped the 
dignified "sir" when he addressed me, and I was amused 
to see how the Colonel quickly assumed it when he 
was disturbed. And then the Doctor was familiar with 
"the old Bowery pit" in his youth — in those days, when 
the Bowery represented all that was picturesque in 
New York City; when Chanfrau played "Mose." the 
rowdy volunteer fireman, and when the "pit," now the 
orchestra circle, was the cheapest part of the house. I 
looked at the Doctor curiously, but dropped my eves 
when his met them. The riddle was unsolved. 
"There will be a corn shucking to-morrow night," 
said the Colonel, "and as both of you seem to be fond 
of that sort of thing, I propose that you go. It will be 
on the next plantation, and hardly a half-hour's ride. 
No, no; never mind me," at a motion made by the Doc- 
tor to say something, "Old Tom will only be too glad 
to come up and bathe my ankle, and spend the evening 
here until you return." 
Going to the Shucking. 
We passed the. next day riding, pitching quoits with 
the boys, and in playing cribbage. The young moon 
was just visible before it followed its master below the 
horizon as we four mounted our horses and started for 
the shucking. The boys were naturally on the lead, but 
we older men walked our horses and talked, I ever on 
the alert to solve the problem. 
Said the Doctor; "Of course you have seen tba£ 
