Sept. 18, 1909.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
453 
Carefully they scrambled through a barbwire 
ence which was not much of an obstruction to 
le little man, but an almost ever present source 
f terror and annoyance to the big man; pushed 
leir way through a comparatively open alder 
nd plum growth, expectant and alert, but 
.'ached the further side without making game. 
"The sun is warm now,” observed the little 
mn, "let’s try the corn and weed patches.” 
The cornfield proved equally barren, but be- 
pnd was a piece of particularly promising 
luntry; a field of shocked corn on a hillside, 
ilh slashed brush on the summit of the rise 
id a small wood beyond, while a haymeadow 
retched below. The dog cocked his ears and 
arted through the .corn. “I can almost smell 
tail here myself,” remarked the big man with 
bright smile; but no, they were not in the 
irn. The dog took a quiet, solemn interest in 
e brush beyond and it was hunted carefully, 
:en the meadow was quartered and requartered 
id the woods visited; no birds. The big man 
iped his perspiring brow; the little man broke 
*> some cut-plug smoking tobacco viciously, and 
j)th looked a little disappointed. 
.“Nothing doing here,” observed the little man 
he loaded his pipe. “Let’s cross the track and 
llow the ridge down to the willow point, 
here have always been birds there.” 
As they started the big' man observed four or 
e ducks swinging in over a little pond be¬ 
nd the meadow, and while he concealed him- 
If in the tall grass at the edge of the pond, 
e little man made a detour to the head of the 
nd to start them toward his friend, while the 
;g sat on his haunches, an interested spec- 
:or. But the ducks were wise in their genera- 
on, and mounting straight in the air, gained 
■ elevation that insured their safety from life- 
'Stroying pellets. 
; En route hack to the track, the trio took in 
mother promising appearing patch of brush; 
'll no birds. “They are bound to be on that 
fge,” the little man said decidedly; “or at all 
tents we should find them before we reach the 
'Hows on the point.” 
4 gain the tramp was resumed. “Be prepared 
If a ruffed grouse to jump any minute when we 
uched those alders,” observed the little man, 
; d the big man gripped his gun and his eyes 
bnkled. But there was no grouse, neither were 
bre any quail right up to the willow point, and 
kn the point was thoroughly hunted without 
iult. 
| 4 s they came out on the further side the big 
j in cast at the little man such a glance as has 
• n cast at false prophets since the world be- 
jj n > ar| d the little man looked reprovingly at 
1 hut the fact remained—not a rise. 
‘Where now?” asked the big man. His tones 
tre.crisp and lacked the cordiality of similar 
’stions he had asked earlier in the day. 
Straight south,” replied the little man. “We 
•' take in that belt of timber and come out on 
meadow where we got up a nice bevy just 
• °re. dark and had to leave them there.” 
Wain the tramp was resumd, minus that 
sticity of step which had characterized the 
- mor ning tramp. The big man was think- 
what fools people were to make socks with 
T s ’ and the little man was thinking what 
s full-grown men were to tramp after a dog 
f could not find quail in a quail country, but 
ther mentioned his thoughts. The dog con¬ 
tinued the even tenor of his way, hunting each 
promising point as he came to it, preserving an 
unruffled dignity, which seemed to say to the 
little man: “I am doing this, you understand, 
not of my own volition. Of course, if I run 
across any birds, I shall point them, but 1 have 
no particular interest in the matter.” At last 
the meadow was reached and was found to 
contain about sixty birds, but they were the 
wrong kind—large bronze turkeys the farmer 
was fattening for Thanksgiving. 
On the further side of the meadow a man was 
husking corn, and to him our friends appealed. 
Had he seen any quail? Not since early in the 
spring, when he had heard them calling. No, he 
had not seen any hunters around. The last time 
he had heard the birds they were over by that 
little clump of alders. The clump of alders was 
carefully explored, the sportsman keeping about 
thirty yards apart, the dog quartering between 
them and to both sides. The clump crossed, 
TWO OF MR. CONRADl’s SUBJECTS. 
they came out in a small field of standing corn. 
“A beautiful point for a rise,” thought the little 
man; “but mighty hard shooting.” Then his 
gun flew to his shoulder as rapidly beating wings 
whirred through the corn, and the next moment 
a fine grouse collapsed at about thirty yards. 
“She certainly must have found the center of 
that charge of 9's,” thought the little man, as he 
picked the bird up. 
They had traveled in a half circle, so that they 
were again near the track, and crossing it, they 
took in a tamarack swamp, which the little man 
felt certain was just the place for grouse, but 
though he floundered through it knee-deep in 
mud and water, there was no disconcerting flush, 
and 1130 p. m. found our trio just opposite where 
they had started hunting, about a mile and a 
half from town, and one grouse between them. 
As they sat on the railroad embankment dispos¬ 
ing of the sandwiches they had carried out, their 
conversation was short and sharp. The sand¬ 
wiches disposed of, a second farmer, who was 
dividing his attention between the corn he was 
husking and a pair of rabbit hounds sniffing 
about for field mice, was appealed to. While he 
had not paid much attention to quail himself, as 
he preferred rabbits, there must be birds around, 
as a couple of fellows were over in that brush—• 
indicating the first point explored by the big and 
little man and dog that morning-—only last Mon¬ 
day, and had shot about five boxes of shells 
while they were there. “No wonder there are 
no birds left,” complained the little man, “bur 
we might as well take it in on our way back.” 
1 hey entered the brush and the big man was 
again mentally cursing the seamed-sock manu¬ 
facturers, and the little man was designing a 
canvas lining for a goose pit, when they both 
became conscious that the dog was no longer 
before them. A backward glance discovered 
him near the top of a slight, thinly wooded rise 
011 a P°' n t- It was not the tense nervous point 
sportsmen delight in, but a quiet, settling into the 
regulation posture, which seemed to say, “I am 
doing this because I am supposed to, but not 
from any particular interest on my part.” 
Hows thatt’ asked the big man in the tone 
of the early morning rather than that of the 
lunch hour, and the little man replied, “Great!” 
in a way which showed all his suspicions of the 
dog had vanished. The Gordon threw his head 
over his left shoulder, the brown eyes asking 
plainly, “Are you there, big man? They are 
heie if you want them.” Yes, the big man was 
there and coming, slowly but surely, shifting 
his gun forward as he advanced. Then the head 
was thrown over the right shoulder, and the 
eyes asked, “Are you coming, little man?” Yes, 
the little man was coming, or would as soon as 
he had extricated himself from a clump of 
thorns he had inadvertently stepped into. Then 
the muzzle pointed to the left quarter, then 
straight ahead, and finally to the right. “A 
scattered bevy, said the big man in a stage 
whisper; or a rabbit,” thought the little man, 
but said nothing. Whir, whir-whir, whir-r-r-r! 
Two guns leaped up—bang-bang, bang-bang. 
"Two down,” exclaimed the little man, breaking 
his gun, and his call of “Get yours?” was a cry 
°I j°y. “Yep, with the second barrel.” 
The dog retrieved the big man’s bird and one 
of the little man’s while the latter picked up 
his second kill. 
“Where did they go? did you mark them?” 
■ asked the big man. 
‘Well as I could. They were still well up 
around the corner of the brush. They went 
on straight across the track or pitched into the 
grass at the edge.” 
“How many were there?” 
“Nine or ten.” 
The little man examined his birds. “Little 
brutes, arn’t they? Don’t seem fully developed 
or very fat, but they can fly all right.” 
It is strange how little a thing will influence 
human feeling. A few minutes before our 
friends had been a pair of tired draggers, now 
they were alert and full of happy energy. The 
grass at the edge of the brush was thoroughly 
explored, then the track was crossed and the 
search continued along the wooded ridge until 
the big man stopped about in the middle. 
“Wouldn’t have gone any further than this, 
would they?” 
Hard to say. Let’s keep on to the willow 
point, and if we do not run across them, hunt 
back carefully," The tramping tactics were re¬ 
sumed until just before the point was reached 
the dog came to a dead point in some grass be¬ 
tween the brush and a stubble field. “How’s 
that?” again asked the big man. “Fine.” re¬ 
plied the little man. Certainly the Gordon was 
showing greater interest in that point than in 
the previous one. There was no movement of 
the head that time. Whir-r-r-r, all at once: No 
