FOREST AND STREAM. 
jfjAN. l6, 1904- 
ORT^NAN 
r 
The Angflef's Dfeam of Spring. 
Arbutus mauve, and lily white, 
And rhododendron flowers bedight, 
On winding banks are blooming. 
Sky-gems, reflected through the night. 
Woo violets nodding blue and bright, 
• That - sway by waters crooning. 
And peep all shyly o'er the bank 
Beneath sweet-fern plumes tall and rank. 
To thorn-flowers' cool perfuming! 
Above, low, pine-rune zephyrs play. 
As brook-notes sing, "Away ! Away!" 
. And showers of seed-pearls gaily tossed, 
Are silvered by the moon and lost ; 
There bamboo rods are whisked about, 
While flies are cast for lusty trout. 
L. F. Brown. 
la Old Virginia. 
XIV.— The Return, 
_ In ancient times it was, "See Rome and die;" we do 
It differently now, we go back again, and perhaps again 
and again. 
Spots dear to memory, hallowed by association with 
loved ones, call to us with each changing season, and as 
time passes and we grow less young, the home of our 
youth sends forth the call that is hardest of all to resist. 
I have often seen her who first drew me to the "Old 
Dommion," struggle with the longing to answer the home 
call, and generally successfully, until this fall. This time 
the struggle was short, ending in complete surrender. 
'We will go back to old Virginia for the entire month 
of November, and see the beautiful autumn colors in the 
forest, and have all the birds we want cooked as they 
should be, once more," said she. 
A maiden lady cousin living with her two brothers 
took kmdly to the idea, and said to come by all means 
at once, and bring the babies and Mammy. And it would 
have been just the same if we had suggested that our 
family consisted of a Presidential full house instead of 
but- two little ones; she was of those who always 
have room in the heart, and can make it in the house. 
Ihe genuine Virginia hospitality would not so much as 
hesitate at a herd of wild elephants if you wanted to 
bring them along on a visit. 
It is only a few inches from Tennessee to southeastern 
Virginia (on the map), and not so very far in actual 
travel, as it is all by one railroad, and it is so good to be 
going back again. 
We broke the trip by a stop over at night on account of 
the little ones, and the next morning crossed the Virginia 
line, which fact was immediately known to the native in 
our party. 
"We are in Virginia," she said. "I heard a man out on 
the station platform where we just stopped urging an- 
other to get off the train and go home and stay a week 
or two with him ; yes, we are in Virginia now, sure." 
Without delay or mishap we reached the end of our 
railway^ journey, and found one of the cousins, "the 
Lsquire," waiting with a conveyance which he said was 
'more ample and safe than stylish," and in which we 
finished in a most comfortable and satisfactory manner 
our journey, arriving at our final destination fairly fresh 
and fiercely hungry. A covey of fine well grown birds 
crossed the road immediately in front of the team as we 
drove up the last hill, and made us sincerely sorry for 
the preliminaries imposed on the non-resident sportsman 
by the Legislature of Virginia. The first half of the 
opemhg day of the season was devoted to securing a 
license from the clerk of the county court of the county 
of Mecklenburg to "Hunt and kill wild waterfowl, deer, 
wild: turkey, pheasant or grouse, woodcock, partridges' 
quail, and other game birds during the open season in the 
next SIX months," and the reader of this chronicle will 
soon, be led to observe that we by no means exhausted 
our legal privileges. 
_ By hurrying through a dinner which under ordinary 
circumstances no man who loves good eating would have 
done, we were ready by mid-afternoon to enter actively 
on the campaign. The dog was a black and white setter 
bearing the unusual name of Roscoe, welh bred and fairly 
welL trained. He, had faults— as who has not— but on the 
whole did as well as his masters in the field. A few hun- 
dred yards from the house, on a hillside where the covt 
was_ heavy, hear a pine thicket, he found' the first covey 
of birds, and came down in as staunch ' a manner as 
heart could desire. . I waited, for the Esquire (who was 
my companion), who was further down the hill, to come 
up and. get position, which, he at once did, but declined to . 
do any sifooting, although he had carried his. gun, declar- 
mg mat his role was "large and appreciative audience," 
as he "was --"no wing shot."- An- enthusiastic fox hunter, 
he TOS only tolerant of all other spdf t. ' Walking in I put 
up the birds, a covey of large strong flyers, whicli swung 
aroupd tg my left, affording my favorite shot. " Having 
missed two consecutive seasons in the field I was a bit 
rusty and rather nervous, and was genuinely pleased and 
somewhat surprised that I made a clean kill with right 
and left. 
At the crack of the gun, Roscoe dashed in and had bird 
number one almost as soon as it touched the ground, 
discovering, thus soon, one of his faults. 
His retrieving was admirable, but he was invariably off 
at the report of the gun, which frequently resulted in_ 
flushed birds and lost shots. We could only surmise the 
line of flight of the covey, as we were under the hill when 
they rose, but concluded to try to work them up. After 
long and patient effort we found three single birds. The 
first flushed wild out of a fallen tree top, and showed no 
sign of discomfort from either one of the two long shots 
taken in haste at him. 
The second bird lay well to the dog and was a fair shot. 
The third went sailing down through a thicket of pines 
at a rate of speed that was discouraging to a man who 
was but an open cover shot, and not such an extraor- 
dinary one at that, but to show that my intentions were 
good I swung in its general direction and unlimbered. 
At the second report the bird fell, but whether I had shot 
it or frightened it so that it had knocked its breath out 
against a tree, I was in doubt. And so difficult is this 
thick cover shooting to me (who learned, and shot for 
years, on the prairies), that frequently I almost doubled 
my own eyes when a bird fell that I had shot at with lit- 
tle or no hope of killing. 
Roscoe seemed to actually congratulate me as he 
brought in this bird, laying it at my feet, looking up in 
my face and wagging his tail in a most approving man- 
ner. He had carried the others to the Esquire, but from 
that time on he brought all birds to me, and took his 
orders exclusively from me. It was getting well along to- 
ward close of day, but as we were not more than half 
a mile from the house, concluded to try for another 
covey. Skirting along down the edge of the pines we 
hunted the dog back and forth in the open field and in the 
woods. And of all the rangers that it has ever been 
my good fortune to follow in the field, the aforesaid 
Roscoe dog was far and away ahead of them all. He 
could not walk, he could not trot, in fact, he had but one 
gait, and that was his level best. I would cheerfully back 
him against any well bred dog of his weight and inches— 
or any weight and inches — to cover two miles to his one 
all day long, and beat him home at night. I hunted him 
three weeks, and never saw him for longer than half a 
minute in any other gait than a dead run, unless working 
immediately upon game. 
It was a pleasure to see him now as he swung back 
and forth in front of us, first out in the field, and then 
back into the woods, with almost the grace and speed of 
a bird. Arriving at the lower end of the field, my com- 
panion stopped to show me where he had seen five wild 
turkeys a few days before my arrival. 
He was returning from town on horseback when three 
of them crossed the road immediately in front of his 
horse, and the other two flushed from some weeds at 
the roadside. Of course he had no gun, one never has 
on such occasions. 
Turning back in the direction of the house, we walked 
on some distance before it occurred to me that the dog 
had been missing for some time, and we returned to hunt 
him up. Well out in the pines we finally found him, 
down on a beautiful point, and I began to cast about for 
the best direction in which to flush the birds. 
"I don't believe it is birds," said my cousin. "Look 
carefully at his tail and see if you don't notice a very 
slight quiver." 
I_ looked carefully and admitted that I could observe a 
thrill permeating the caudal appendage of our faithful 
canine, but what had that to, do with the game? 
"It is a rabbit," said my companion with conviction, 
and so it was ; and the next moment it was up and fran- 
tically tearing through the woods with the dog in hot 
pursuit. I managed to call and whistle Roscoe back be- 
fore he ran entirely out of hearing, and his shame and 
penitence was pathetic. He was not a dog to be beaten, 
and so when I had reasoned with him vigorously for a 
season, _ we resumed our interrupted hunt, with me in 
possession of further information: as to the faults of the 
"Been following the boys around the place and got into 
the rabbit habit," explained his master. "I don't blame 
the old rascal one bit for wanting to run them; running 
anything is fun, but what makes me mad is his trying to 
fool you when he points one; he knows full well it is 
not birds, and yet the only bit of his anatomy that does 
not lie when he points a rabbit is that supersensitive 
honest tail." 
_ We again headed toward home, much to my satisfac- 
tion, as I was beginning to find the running vines and 
tough matted grass harder and .harder to wade through. 
"What are these confounded things good for, anyhow?" 
I asked, as I recovered from a violent plunge that nearly 
snapped my head off, caused by a -tangle up in a running 
vine. 
"Never heard but one m^n say," was the reply. A 
peppery old fellow from the ' rice fields of 'Louisiana 
moved up here and lived for a while, and he said our land 
was fit only to raise tobacco to cure and briers to cuss. 
If they are good for anything else I don't know what 
it is. They certainly do not add to the pleasure of walk- 
ing, even when you are. used to them." 
At the upper end of the strip of pine timber along 
which we had come was a small grove of hardwood tim- 
ber, and on the edge of this we found the dog down 
again. "No rabbit about that," said m/ companion. 
"Get ready for business." 
I quickly saw that the bird would fly through the trees, 
and began to excuse the misses I foresaw by suggesting 
that fact, and calling attention to the gathering darkness ; 
but on the flush two or three rose above the others and 
flew through an opening against the sky, giving me light 
enough for a fair shot, and I got a pair. 
The house was near and we laid a straight course for 
the fire, whose welcome light streamed forth from the 
window. And as I began to sum up my sensations at 
the close of this, the first outing of my visit, I discovered 
that the matter interesting me most was how soon, after 
our arrival, would we have supper, and would there be 
plenty of it. 
As we entered the house, the family came "en masse" 
to welcome us, including cousin Rob, who was confined 
to the house, entertaining an attack of rheumatism. If 
we had been favorite sons and brothers and had been 
away three months instead of three hours, our welcome 
could not have been more cordial and affectionate. And 
the birds were inspected, admired, and passed from hand 
to hand that their extraordinary plumpness might be 
noted, and our skill commended. 
Had an alien been there to see he would have thought 
us "The Grand Pan Jandrum, with a little round button 
at the top," and our birds the only birds left of their 
kind, and the best kind at that. But it is just the Virginia 
way; they can't help it, and I hope they never can. 
"Now here is just a little of my home-made wine to 
rest you and prevent any ill effects from your unusual ex- 
ertion," said the dear lady of the house, when we had put 
off our shooting togs and taken comfortable positions 
before the open wood fire. "I shall always expect you 
to take a little something when you come in tired, so be 
sure and ask for it if I forget." 
But I never had the opportunity to ask; it was in- 
variably at my side a very few moments after I got 'in, 
and I readily saw why her brothers were contented to 
live along as bachelors under her thoughtful and affec- 
tionate ministration. The supper was not delayed, and 
quantity and quality was all that could be desired. 
A pleasant evening before the open fire hunting the 
hunt over again with the "shut in" cousin, and then a 
ready assent to the question as to "whether it was not 
tired men's bed time," and this in spite of the fact that 
I had promised the boy (age 4) that he might be my bed 
fellow, and he had imparted to the supper table the in- 
formation that he was "Doin' to sleep wif papa and kick 
him till he squealed like a pig." Lewis Hopkins. 
Recollections of Sand Creek. 
Having no longer opportunity to practice either shoot- 
ing or angling, I cannot avoid becoming reminiscent. 
From time to time, as the spirit moves me, as the Quakers 
say, I will jot down and mail you samples of the visions 
called up by memory, which, as usual, you are heartily 
welcome to dispose of as seemeth proper. 
It was in the fall of 1892 that I first saw Sand Creek. 
With my troop I was attending a county fair at the little 
town of Spearfish, South Dakota, having been sent out 
with the rest of my squadron from our station to act, I 
suppose, as a kind of extra attraction to the fair, and in- 
cidentally to give the troops a little change from the 
humdrum of garrison routine. 
The September weather was fine, and as the fair con- 
sisted largely of horse trotting— a species of entertain- 
ment that failed to appeal to either Capt. K, my comrade 
in field sports, or myself— we utilized all possible oppor- 
tunity to visit the surrounding country within a radius of 
fifteen or twenty miles, with a view of both present and 
prospective possibilities for shooting, as at that time we 
were^ both but recently arrived at that station, and knew 
but little of the game resources of the neighborhood. 
We were old sportsmen and well equipped for the 
chase. I 'had an excellent mountain wagon capable of 
holding everything necessary to a trip of several day-j' 
duration, and a splendid pair of horses for our purposes ; 
they would take that wagon, loaded with three or four 
passengers. and their baggage, wherever we wanted to go, 
road or no road, make their forty miles a day or such a 
iriatter, and apparently think nothing of it. K. had a 
fine red setter which understood what was wanted of him: 
In addition, we had all the minor equipment of shotguns, . 
shell boxes, etc., necessary to our entire convenience; 
all we needed for our happiness was opportunity. This 
came occasionally; at the time we considered these occa- 
sions as exceedingly rare; but, as I now look back upon 
it in these days of ceaseless drudgery, I cannot help think- 
ing that, after all, we were pretty well favored, and I 
have no doubt our colonel thought we wanted permission 
to be absent shooting and fishing all the time. 
Our excursions during the fair had failed "to profit us 
to any considerable degree, and, on one occasion,, while, in. 
