HUBERT GARDINER 
President of Gardiner’s Binding 
and Mailing Company 
.Snapshot of the first four-pound small-mouth 
bass, caught on the opening day for bass fish¬ 
ing, August 1st, on Lake George, near his 
country home at Huletts Landing, N. Y. 
HONEY DUCK 
By Peggy Poe 
ATTIE was a call duck. That is, 
to outer appearances she was a 
duck, but as to her deportment, jealous- 
ness..her vengeance, one wonders if some 
speck of Cleopatria’s dust had not been 
■wafted across the sea and been incar¬ 
nated in Hattie. More than this, Hat¬ 
tie was a vampire, with all the vanity 
smirking advances of that sort of a 
person, with the exception that instead 
of wearing someone else’s feathers to 
enhance her beauty she wore her own 
glued to her back by nature. Like many 
another vampire, Hattie spurned the 
admiration of the males in her own 
pound, though the drakes bobbed glit¬ 
tering green heads at her and called 
with mellowed small voices after her. 
Hattie turned a leaden eye upon their 
fancies and waddled away, which was 
something as Cleopatria scorned the 
swains of her native Nile. Yet there 
was a pronounced lesson in Hattie’s 
conduct, in that she never waited for 
Oppoitunity to call; in fact, she sought 
out the gracious lady and locked her 
behind her own door, until the time 
came for Hattie to play the fiddle for 
her merry dance, which is generally the 
task allotted the “vamp” while the male 
is gone to make the atonement or seek 
other game. 
To begin with, Hattie started life in 
Page 571 
the back yard at the old Jeems Bayou 
Club House, on the shores of Caddo 
Lake, at a point where it received Jeems 
Bayou. This club, noted for its ex¬ 
clusiveness, was composed of some fifty 
rare old hunters of the South. It was 
necessary that these aristocratic nim- 
rods have trained live decoys under 
theii guns when they went forth to por¬ 
tray their skill on the fertile bosom of 
Lake Caddo. 
Hattie was one among some fifty 
little ducklings hatched for the purpose 
of call ducks, from the eggs of the do¬ 
mestic mallard ducks which are so true 
in coloring as to make it an almost 
exact copy of the wild brethren, that is, 
all the fifty were exact except Hattie. 
Here nature had been fanciful. Hattie, 
instead of light and dark browns and 
the gieenish moltly bill, had blossomed 
forth with three huge white spots on her 
back, a brilliant yellow bill and almost 
white head. 
At first, while in the downy stage, 
Hattie’s off markings were not noticed' 
but when the young ducks began to out¬ 
grow their green feathers Hattie’s 
white spots proclaimed her an outlaw. 
The club house manager first noticed 
Hattie when the young ducks were 
taken in a boat to an island in the lake 
to be gun-trained. They were about 
half grown at this stage and very 
awkward. 
The task of gun-breaking the ducks 
consumes some time, and requires much 
patience. In the first place, the ducks 
had been petted from the first day that 
they waddled forth from the mother 
nest to be adopted by the manager. 
This was to install confidence in men, 
in their ducky minds; yet with all their 
confidence youthful ducks dislike to 
have a string tied to their legs and fast¬ 
ened to a stake, though this is done on 
the edge of some willow-rimmed island 
in a quiet cypress brake, where the 
water is shallow and the lake bed very 
smooth, yet young ducks will flop about 
and even drown themselves if not 
watched. 
In a few days the young ducks be¬ 
come reconciled to their stakes and 
begin to search for the corn beneath 
them which their trainer has strewn 
bountifully on the lake bed. Back and 
forth among them goes the trainer, in 
his high boots, petting and talking to 
the decoys as if they were children. 
When their confidence is keen and they 
seem to be enjoying life in the water, 
the hunter teaches them to “call.” He 
will call “Ducky,” “Ducky,” repeatedly. 
When they answer, which they do very 
quickly, he tosses them bits of bread. 
Soon he conceals himself in the willows 
and calls. In a very short time the 
young ducks will answer readily, some 
very loudly, some rather indifferently. 
Of course, the calling is left chiefly to 
the hens, as the drakes have little voice, 
but a flock of mallard decoys without 
the blight colors of the drakes would 
be very dull-looking indeed, and the 
drakes serve also to instill confidence 
in their noisy female companions. 
It is most comical the way the ducks 
act the first few times the young trainer 
shoots over them. Of all quacking, 
flopping, diving, tangling, but as noth¬ 
ing comes of the noise except a handful 
of corn, the ducks soon allow the trainer 
to pump his gun empty over them and 
not so much as turn an eye from their 
fishing after tit-bits from the lake. 
Of course, this training is done in the 
summer, and by the time that summer 
has waned into the sparkle of golden 
autumn and one is thrilled by the thou¬ 
sands of wild ducks sounding a glad 
and continuous refrain on the early 
morning air, the decoy ducks are so 
docile and well behaved as to act as a 
soothing balm to the most feverish 
hunter. 
Now all this training concerned Hat¬ 
tie by chance and not by intentions and 
shows that it pays to ensnare Chance. 
In the first place, the trainer had noted 
Hattie’s off-marks and branded her an 
outlaw. He had voiced his disapproval, 
saying her white spots would proclaim 
her as a fake a mile off, but Hattie 
turned inquiring eyes upon him and 
made plans to vamp him or plans to 
that effect. 
In the first place, Hattie was put in 
the crates with the other ducks when 
they were taken to their training - 
places, because she was not yet large 
enough for a roast, and if she was left 
behind she waddled up and down the 
lake shore with an endless quack, or 
put out to follow the boat, thus offering 
hei self as a dainty bit for some eager 
turtle or gar. So it was that Hattie 
was tumbled in with her companions 
and dumped at the training point with¬ 
out the ceremony of a stake or string, 
as she was intended for a roast and not 
a decoy at the seasonable time. 
But it wasn’t very long until plans 
concerning Hattie began to change. The 
trainer soon noticed that while the 
other ducks plunged about, Hattie at 
all times remained as serene as a fin¬ 
ished debutante under shot and wind. 
If he called ever so softly, Hattie an¬ 
swered back with far - reaching - notes 
which must have pierced the skies. If 
he failed to call, Hattie became con¬ 
cerned and called, anyway, piercing the 
air with her “quacks,” until every duck 
in the flock joined her. Being free to 
go at her will, the trainer, siting be¬ 
hind willow clumps, was apt to find 
Hattie waddling up to him to share 
his sandwich. She would waddle over 
his lap or stretch a lazy wing at his 
