ONE DUCK. 
247 
coming up,” or, “ Mark, coming down,” or 
“ Mark, coming in,” as the case may be. 
If they decoy, he presently hears the whistle 
of their wings, or maybe he catches a glimpse 
of them over the rim of the box, as they 
circle about. Just as they let down their 
feet to alight, he is expected to spring up 
and pour his broadside into them. A boat 
from shore comes and picks up the game, if 
there is any to pick up. 
Eldridge, by common consent, was the 
first in the box that morning ; but only a 
few ducks were moving, and he had laid 
there an hour before we marked a solitary 
bird approaching, and, after circling over the 
decoys, alighting a little beyond them. The 
sportsman sprang up as from the bed of the 
river, and the duck sprang up at the same 
time, and got away, under fire. After a 
while Peck went out ; but the ducks passed 
by on the other side, and he had no shots. 
In the afternoon, remembering the robins, 
and that robins are game when one’s larder 
is low, I set out alone for the pine bottoms, 
a mile or more distant. When one is loaded 
for robins, he may expect to see turkeys, and 
vice versa. As I was walking carelessly on 
the borders of an old brambly field that 
stretched a long distance beside the pine- 
woods, I heard a noise in front of me, and, 
on looking in that direction, saw a veritable 
turkey, with spread tail, leaping along at a 
rapid rate. She was so completely the image 
of the barn-yard fowl that I was slow to 
realize that here was the most notable game 
of that part of Virginia, for the sight of 
which sportsmen’s eyes do water. As she 
was fairly on the wing, I sent my robin-shot 
after her ; but they made no impression, and 
I stood and watched with great interest her 
long, level flight. As she neared the end 
of the clearing, she set her wings and sailed 
straight into the corner of the woods. I 
found no robins, but went back satisfied 
with having seen the turkey, and having had 
an experience that I knew would stir up the 
envy and tlie disgust of my companions. 
They listened with ill-concealed impatience, 
stamped the ground a few times, uttered a 
vehement protest against the caprice of fort- 
une that always puts the game in the wrong 
place or the gun in the wrong hands, and 
rushed off in quest of that turkey. She was 
not where they looked, of course; and, on 
their return about sun-down, when they had 
ceased to think about their game, she flew 
out of the top of a pine-tree not thirty rods 
from camp, and in full view of them, but 
too far off for a shot. 
In my wanderings that afternoon, I came 
upon two negro shanties in a small triangu- 
lar clearing in the woods; no load but only a 
footpath lead to them. Three or four chil- 
dren, the eldest a girl of twelve, were about 
the door of one of them. I approached and 
asked for a drink of water. The girl got a 
glass and showed me to the spring near by. 
“We’s grandmover’s daughter’s chilern,” 
she said in reply to my inquiry. Their 
mother worked in Washington for “eighteen 
cents a month,” and their grandmother took 
care of them. 
Then I thought I would pump her about 
the natural history of the place. 
“What was there in these woods, — what 
kind of animals, — any ? ” 
“ Oh yes, sah, when we first come here to 
live in dese bottoms, de ’possums and foxes 
and things were so thick you could hardly 
go out-o’-doors.” A fox had come along 
one day right where lier mother was wash- 
ing, and they used to catch the chickens 
“ dreadful.” 
“ Were there any snakes ? ” 
“Yes, sah, black snakes, moccasins and 
doctors.” 
The doctor, she said, was a powerful ugly 
customer; it would get right hold of your 
leg as you were passing along, and whip, 
and sting you to death. I hoped I should 
not meet any “ doctors.” 
I asked her if they caught any rabbits. 
“ Oh yes, we catches dem in ‘ gums’.” 
“ What are gums ? ” I asked. 
“ See dat down dare ? Dat’s a ‘ gum 
I saw a rude box-trap made of rough 
boards. It seems these traps, and many 
other things, such as bee-hives, and tubs, etc., 
are frequently made in the South from a hol- 
low gum-tree; hence the name gum has 
come to have a wide application. 
The ducks flew quite briskly that night; I 
could hear the whistle of their wings as I 
stood upon the shore indulging myself in 
listening. The ear loves a good field as 
well as the eye, and the night is the best 
time to listen, to put your ear to nature’s 
key-hole and see what the whisperings and 
the preparations mean. I overheard some 
musk-rats engage in a very gentle and 
affectionate jabber beneath a rude pier of 
brush and earth, upon which I was standing. 
The old, old story was evidently being re- 
hearsed under there, but the occasional 
splashing of the ice-cold water made it 
seem like very chilling business; still we 
all know it is not. Our decoys had not 
been brought in, and I distinctly heard 
