Jak. 28, 1899.1 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
63 
topped with ns at Fort Selkirk several days to recuperate, 
and when they left they had ample supplies to carry them 
to the next stage of their journey. Lingard's feet per- 
mitted him to hobble along* with the aid-Of rough crutches, 
and at times he rode on a sled. 
We learned afterward that the party reached the coast 
in safety, though one of its members, a man whom we knew 
as Sam, had had his gee pole arm seriously . frozen, and 
mortification was reported to haA^e .set in. 
J. B. BURNHAM. 
In Old Virginia* 
Part n. 
A FEW mornings thereafter I concluded to try the quail, 
lion. John S. Wise has his intelligent friend Diomed say 
i\vd.t Virginia is the "hub" of the universe for this bird, 
the gamcst of all our game birds. 
Virginia quail, he says, are larger than any other quad 
in the world, and travel in any direction you may from 
Virginia, you will find them less in size, and lacking in 
dash and vigor. 
My rather general experience leads Hit td believe that 
this statement is not exaggerated. 
The Virginia birds certainly dress larger than any birds 
the writer has ever shot, in a shooting experience ranging 
from Minnesota to Florida, and with a fair radius East 
and West. Your host always expects you to "carry a 
boy" with you on all expeditions, whether afoot or horse- 
backt in old Virginia; to open gates, pilot you about, 
carry your game and make himself useful in any other 
manner desired. 
There is nearly always olie-- br more bird dogs to be 
found on the plantations, generally very well bred, but 
unless regularly hunted they are often illy broken, o:' 
,sadh' demoralized l)y association with "the boys," who are 
inveterate rabbit hunters. 
The dog belonging to the plantation where I was vis- 
iting had met with a fatal accident a few days before my 
.•irrival, and his successor had not yet been installed. A 
neighboring sportsman, the owner of a pair of fine point- 
ers, had promised my hostess to bring his dogs and shoot 
with me for the day. 
Completing my preparations before the time set for his 
arrival, I concluded to take a turn in the open near the 
house to work off the wire edge, and perhaps get a chance 
shot to get my "eye in" for the regular business of the 
day. 
My hostess came to the door to see rne o'ff and wi.sh 
me luck. Noticing that I was unattended, she at once 
sent Millie, the maid, who was pretending to sweep the 
walk, but who was in reality enjoying herself watching u.s, 
for a boy. Millie soon returned, followed by two candi- 
dates for the position of gun bearer or game carrier. 
One was a good, big boy. heavy and awkward; the other 
was what I had heard the overseer call a "chap." The big 
fellow was barefooted and stood digging his toes in the 
ground in uncomfortable embarrassment. The chap was 
erect and important in a new pair of brogans as stiff and 
hard, apparently, as though made of raw hide. 
The little fellow was my choice, and the big boy was 
sent back to the woodpile. My selection stood as erect 
as a drum major, looking me straight in the face, without 
moving a muscle. He was black, slim as a sapling, and 
thoroughly wide-awake looking. The comely"' proportion 
of his legs was fully visible from the tops of his shoes to 
4 or 5in. above his knees, looking like a pair of well- 
scorched laths; at this point began a pair if diminutive 
trousers that fitted him almost as tightly as his little black 
hide; a worn shirt and a bit of hat, that looked Hke a lid, 
completed his outfit. Nearly all negroes are deliberate of 
speech. Not so this chap. , 
"What is your name?" I- asked. 
"Guv'nah, suh," was the instantaneous reply. 
"Whose boy are you. Governor?" 1 then asked. 
"I Aunt Mar3''s boy, suh," quick and sharp came the 
answer. . — 
"How old are j^our"' 
"Twelve-goin'-on-thirteen, suh." 
. "Are you a good walker?" 
"Yaas, suh." 
"Do you want to go hunting with me?" 
"Yaas, suh." 
His alert, terse manner had impressed me favorably, 
and he did not prove at all disappointing on closer ac- 
(|Ualntance. 
When we reached a promising bit of stubble I ordered 
Governor out to the right wing and we started in to walk 
up something. The first flush was a field lark, and as I 
was shooting a new gun and needed practice, I classed 
hun as game. 
As he pitched for the ground my boy darted' for him 
like a sparrow hawk after a snow bird, and retrieved him 
promptly. A few steps further, and we jumped a rabbit. 
1 cut the weeds around him, but as he was running strong 
when the smoke of my broadside cleared away, 1 had to 
conclude that the gun was a little new yet. Nothing more 
offered until we reached the fence at the ftirther side of the 
fi,ekl. Here, as we threaded our way through some briers, 
we were fortunate enough to walk into a covey of birds. 
Just as they flushed I had noticed my boy reach up to 
grasp the fence, preparatory to climbing over. After I 
had killed my first bird,- much too close, and missed the 
second, that I ought to have killed properly, I glanced 
around, and there stood that boy in the exact position 
still with hands up in the air. At a nod from me he r.an 
over the fence like a squirrel, and was back with the dead 
bird when I dropped off on the other side. I had marked 
the covey down on a hillside near by, where the growth 
was sedge grass dotted over with stunted field pines. 
When we reached the spot where I expected to find them 
I sent the boy up the slope, about 50ft. from me, and bid 
him keep in line and watch carefully where any dead birds 
fell. The first flush was a single, straight away. He fell, 
clean killed, to my first barrel. Bidding Governor mark 
the place, we moved on a few steps and two birds flushed 
at my feet, followed an instant later by a third. They 
swung to my right, flying low, and when I drew on them 
they were in a line with the lid that did duty as a hat on 
the boy's head. 
"Stoop down!" I shouted as the first bird pitched over 
his head, too close for safe shooting. The little image 
failed to understand the order and stood like a statue. 
"Stoop down, quick!" J shouted, as the second bird 
tapped him in its rapid rush for safety. Then, in despera- 
tion, as the last bird approached him, I yell "Squat!" 
and the boy disappeared as though the earth had opened 
and swallowed him, -and I killed the bird — a long shot — 
with the choked, hard-shooting left barrel. A little fur- 
ther on we flushed three more birds; one I killed, but 
the other two were lost by my failure to connect on both 
as they crossed in flight, a feat often performed when in 
better practice. 
One more bird was flushed and knocked down as we 
returned, but our combined efforts failed to find him. 
Concluding that he had only been winged, and know- 
ing that it was useless to hunt for him without a dog, I 
had turned and started for the house, when my boy called 
out: "Here Jeff, suh; he fin' him fob you." 
"Jeff" was a thoroughbred after the order instituted by 
the small boy, being "one-half shepherd and the rest just 
dog," and I could not feel the slightest encouragement 
by reason of his talents enlisted to aid in the recovery of 
the lost bird. 
But Jeft' had evidently been blessed, a few generations 
back, with an ancestor possessed of a nose; and was now 
able to materially aid and profoundly sttrprise those una- 
ware of his distinguished lineage. Being directed to the 
spot where the bird had fallen, he took up the trail as 
promptly as any prize winner at field contests could have 
done, followed it to a dry ditch 2Syds. away; sped up the 
ditch in a run for 50yds., stopped short, crept up through 
the weeds on one side 2Sft. or more, clapped his paws 
down on a fluttering, broken-winged quail, and looked 
around at the boy, who had followed close behind him, for 
further orders. If a cow grazing in the field had done 
the same thing it would have seemed but little more sur- 
prising and unexpscted. On our return trip to the house 
one more opportunity offered to add to the bag. It was 
what the boy -called "a fine, fat ole haar," when he brought 
him in, and was .undoubtedl}', to him, the most satisfac- 
tory event of the expedition. 
My shooting companion had arrived when we returned 
to the house, and we set forth at once for the real busi- 
ness of the day. 
As we intended looking up the survivors of the covey I 
had discovered, and the field was near the house, our fair 
hostess donned her corduroy suit and accompanied us to 
see the opening of the hunt. 
The pair of pointers over which we were to shoot was 
everything desired in appearance, and their work proved 
in keeping. 
We hunted first down the other side of the ridge that I 
had been shooting on, and soon struck scent. Both dog.s 
worked on tlie trail of what seemed a single bird leading 
straight awaj'. They were side by side when they found 
game, and the point was beautiful. VVe ranged up in a 
line near them and stood several moments enjoying the 
magnificent sight before giving the order to flush. 
The flush yielded a brace, which separated, one flying 
•straight away, and the other swinging around over my 
left shoulder, with the wind under his wings. I hated to 
miss the first chance offered me in the presence of our 
fair audience, but felt the utter hopelessness of overtaking 
that brown meteor with anything less speedy than a 
streak of lightning. 
More to show my good intention than in anticipation 
of any result, I hastily fired in the direction of his flight 
and scored a beautiful accident, although this is the first 
admission of its being such. The bird whirled down al- 
most to the foot of the hill before striking the ground, so 
great was its momentum. 
My companion had attended to the other bird in a 
quiet, orderly manner that proved him a veteran. The 
dogs divided the honor of retrieving, each bringing in a 
bird. 
Moving on, we next flushed a single, which the Vir- 
ginia gentleman allowed me to kill, courteously refvis- 
ing to swing his gun from the comfortable shoulder rest 
when he saw but one bird up. 
Two birds from the ground and a hawk from a low, 
thick pine tree were the next flush. Following my inva- 
riable rule, I paid my respects to the hawk first, cutting 
him down with the right barrel, and then, contrary to the 
rule of virtue always rewarded, missed my bird entirely. 
My companion, more skillful, saved him for our bag by 
a long shot, followed immediately by a courteous apology 
to me for killing my bird. It was very considerately and 
affably done, but he "wiped my eye" just the same. 
Fur was the next event. A rabbit was jumped by his 
Excellency, the diminutive Governor, who was stalking 
solemnly along in the rear. It surprised him into speech. 
"Haar, suh! Huah he go!" he shouted. 
He passed near me, and out of respect to the dogs I 
let him go. It was no small sacrifice either, as when out 
for general all-round sport I am much addicted to throw- 
ing the festive "cottontail" his three to nine flip-flaps, 
that usually immediately precedes his transfer to the game 
bag. My consideration for the dogs was rewarded by as 
pretty an exhibition of perfect training as it had ever been 
my lot to see. They were working in near us, and close 
together, and the rabbit, under full steam, dashed right 
between them, without any other result than causing them 
to show a lively interest in his hasty and erratic move- 
ments; and they were both young dogs, just beginning 
their second season. 
We were now notified by the big bell at the house that 
a pleasant duty awaited us there in the shape of dinner, 
and the hunt was called off until afternoon. 
En route to the house I strayed a little and was suc- 
cessful. The disappoint,ment in the little bright black face 
of the small darky when the rabbit was allowed to escape 
had touched me, and I was looking for consolation for 
him at a safe distance froin the dogs. I found it, and it 
was a fine one. A great big, reddish-brown fellow, the 
kind they call woods rabbits. Holding straight down the 
row, he was boring through the weeds. I persuaded him 
to stop running and proceed to throw back handsprings, 
not more than two or three of which had been accom- 
plished before the boy had him by the hindlegs and was 
knocking the remaining kick out of him by blows on the 
back of his head with his little black fist, while his eyes 
fairly sparkled with excitement and satisfaction. 
Bidding him carry it to his "mammy," her cabin being 
near, I joined nay companions. It was some time after 
the pleasant discussion of the dinner thai we tound wait- 
ing for us before we started in to finish our hunt. 
Our hostess had declared her sporting blood fully 
cooled by the fatigue ot the morning trip, and declined 
our invitation to accompany us. We found my boy sit- 
ting on the horse-block outside the gate, evidently Wait- 
ing our appearance. 
I was about to dismiss him, as we intended taking only 
a short trip, and there was no likelihood of our game 
pockets overflowing; but it occurred to ine that possibly 
Governor was an embryo sportsman, and that it was as 
much a following of inclination as devotion to duty that 
caused his promptness. "How long have you been wait- 
ing, Governor?" I asked him. 
"Dunno, suh; 'bout two houahs, I spec." 
"Didn't you get tired of waiting for us?" 
"No, suh. I was des 'fraid you all had dun ma<le up 
your min' not to go." 
I was getting "warm" in my investigation, as the chil- 
dren say. My theory of sporting blood was fast gain- 
ing ground. 
"What is that in your pockets?" I said, pointing to two 
suspicious-looking bulges in his pants pockets. 
"Dis one is 'tater," said he, touching one pocket, "and 
dis is biskit," touching the othen 
"Where did you get them, and what will you do with 
them?" I asked. 
"Aunt Ellen give um to me, suh, foh my dinnah; 'cause 
T 'fraid you all start out foh I git my dinnah eat if I wait 
'til 'hit reddy." 
That settled it. It was sporting blood "of the purest 
ray serene" that animated this little African Nimrod. The 
half-formed resolution to dismiss him was laid on the 
table, and we proceeded to the business before the house 
as a whole. The covers did not yield well, and our after- 
noon was threatening to prove an "off day," when along 
toward 4 o'clock we reached a field covered with an un- 
usually heavy growth of sedge grass. 
The weather had grown cloudy, and the short Decem- 
ber day bid fair to soon close. We concluded that the 
birds might be going to roost, and as heavy sedge grass 
is their favorite place, we would take a turn through the 
field. 
The dogs had but fairly entered the grass when they 
found birds. A covey flushed which yielded us three 
birds, I having missed my first. A little further the dogs 
pointed, and it was another covey. We stopped four of 
this lot. But a few steps further, and to our intense sur- 
prise another covey flushed. Three of them was our share, 
owing to both having shot the same bird with the second 
barrel. Again within a very short distance we found 
birds, and again, and again, until out of that sedge field 
we had put up over ten covics of birds in less than one 
hour. We wondered, "and still our wonder grew," as did 
our bag- We got something out of every covey, and oc- 
casionally four. 
It was not until the next day that the mystery of the 
birds crowding into the sedge-grass field in such nimibers 
was explained. That night began one of the worst winter 
storms of years. A very heavy snowstorm was followe<i 
by intensely cold weather, the mercury falling to zero and 
below. It lasted for weeks, and when the weather at 
last moderated all but a very hardy few of tlie thousands 
of birds that had made the "Old Dominion" a sports- 
man's paradise were frozen to death. 
My sporting ethics are orthodox, but whenever I think 
of all those fine, well-conditioned birds freezing and wast- 
ing, I rather regret every show of moderation on our part 
during that day's hunt. Our return trip to the house was 
without incident, at least without anything of interest to 
any charitably inclined person. 
It is true that the dogs found game, and my companion 
decided it to be a single bird, and sent me forward to kill 
it. That when the bird flushed and flew straight away I 
.shot as true as in me lay, in the line of his departure, with- 
out disconcerting him, and my friend, from 2oft. behind 
me, killed him as coolly and easily as though quail in a 
hurry at 6oyds. was his favorite target in the latter part of 
a dark winter afternoon; and that another bird flushed 
at my right bootleg an instant later, and swung over the 
rising ground along which we were passing, that slid 
through my second deadly charge, to be tnost scientific- 
ally grassed by my friend with the true eye and steady 
hand. 
These incidents, I say, were of no special interest, but 
the courteous and kindly excuses made for me, in ex- 
tenuation of my execrable shooting, by my superior, as 
he had just proved himself, was a beautiful lesson in "the 
greatest of these." 
Returning to the house with about the load of fatigue 
that a man might expect to carry after a whole day in 
all sorts of cover, I was just deliberating as to whether I 
should not go to bed hungry, rather than undergo the 
further exertion of changing my clothes for supper, when 
in response to a knock on my door, and "Come in," a 
girl entered carrying a waiter covered with a snowy nap- 
kin, on which rested a glass containing some botanical 
specimens. 
"What is it, Milly?" I asked. 
"Hit's a Jew-lip," she replied; "Mis' Lady'lowed as how 
you'd be right smaht wo' out, en she sen' hit to refreshen 
you Up, suh." 
I dutifully proceeded to take the remedy for fatigue, 
and prescription for "refreshen." Took all that I could 
persuade to drain out of the glass, then carefully scraped 
out the remnant of an ingredient that seemed to have 
saccharine properties, chewed up all of the botanical spec- 
imens, and carefully licked the spoon. Then, after rest- 
ing a few moments, I proceeded with my preparations for 
supper with such vigorous alacrity that I was moved to 
speculate on what might have been the result had niy 
hostess mixed me the entire Israelite and sent him up. 
I am conscientiously opposed to any general use of 
stimulants, but I would hate to have to maintain that posi- 
tion against a continued siege of Virginia "Jew-lips," for 
they, like the Old Dominion's hospitality and her fair 
daughters, are absolutely irresistible. 
Lewis Hopkins. 
. To me notliing comes so near to filling the place of a real hunt 
as to read a detailed account of one, which I believe to be true, 
which feature I believe to be prominent in Forest and Stream 
literature, else I would not have tny name on its mailing list, much 
less its list of contributors. Emerson Carnev. 
