76 BREAKING A BIRD DOG 
pheasant to a stand. All of a sudden it 
flushed wild almost out of range—and then 
it was that we had a chance to discover there 
was one real shot in the party anyhow. John 
Reymiller was the hero on this occasion. 
It was a long shot, but he bagged the bird. 
This was the first time John had pulled trig¬ 
ger that day, but after that first shot there 
was nothing to the party but Reymiller. Up 
to that time none of the pheasants had gotten 
up in front of him. After that they didn’t 
get up in front of any one else; which was 
mighty stupid of the pheasants, for the rest 
of us might have missed them—John Rey¬ 
miller never missed any. 
But to return to that first long try which 
broke the ice for John that day—it was cer¬ 
tainly a pretty effort and the result was a 
thrillingly fine reward for a splendid shot. 
The bird, however, was only wing tipped 
and started off like a race horse the minute 
it hit the ground. We had the treat of 
our lives watching Byrd chasing to retrieve 
it. It is like finding a needle in a haystack 
to bag a wounded pheasant without the help 
of a good dog. The little Setter’s tail 
