


AuG. 31, 1907.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
sae 

to his collar. He made no attempt to molest 
the sheep. 
For several days the visits to the sheep 
pasture were continued; then Sam came to the 
conclusion that the pup’s taste for mutton had 
been eliminated. A week later, Fool made his 
first acquaintance with woodcock. The cover 
was still very dense. The pup blundered on 
to two or three birds, and flushed them without 
pointing. On one occasion he chased a bird 
for a few yards, until the drag line on his 
collar fetched him up with a sudden jerk, and 
Sam cuffed his ears. The attempt to chase 
and the judicious cuffing were repeated on 
several occasions. Then Fool realized that he 
was expected to find his birds, but that under 
no consideration must he follow them when 
they flew. 
A night or two of bitter white frost, which 
killed the leaves, and two days of pouring rain 
put the covers into better condition. The first 
flight of birds from the eastern counties com- 
menced to swell the stock of game, and the 
morning after the rain ceased Fool made his 
first point. 
The woodcock had stuffed himself full of 
worms, feeding on the sodden pasture all 
night, and when daylight came he was too 
lazy to fly. He simply waddled into a little 
patch of alders and birch, hardly larover than 
a billiard table. The pup picked up the scent 
and commenced to work it. Sam was close be- 
hind him. The scent grew stronger as the 
pup advanced. Finally he not only smelt but 
actually saw the bird on the ground. 
Fool would have given a good deal to have 
made a pounce at it, but somehow he realized 
that such a course of action meant a repri- 
mand and possibly a cuffng. Another thing: 
some kind of knowledge had lately dawned on 
him that the flushing of birds was “not quite 
the thing.” He stiffened and watched the cock 
with one paw held up and the saliva dripping 
from his mouth. For perhaps twenty seconds 
he remained in that position. Sam Armstrong 
had given his drag line a twist round a con- 
venient stump, though the pup was not aware 
of the fact. Then a pebble passed over his 
head and almost struck the bird. As it flushed, 
a stentorian “Hold!” from the master stopped 
the pup. An instant later the gun cracked, and 
the woodcock collapsed. “Down, charge, Fool!” 
and the pup dropped on his belly, quivering with 
excitement. 
Then ensued three or four minutes of de- 
lightful- petting, of being rolled on the ground 
and rubbed on the stomach, and finally the gift 
of a little bit of meat. Then Sam took the cord 
in his hand and ordered the dog to “Seek dead.” 
He was familiar with the phrase, so far as it re- 
lated to his old moccasin, but not in connection 
with birds. After some minutes it dawned 
upon him that the woodcock might be the 
thing he was required to seek. The bird was 
dead, the scent was quite different to that of 
the live bird. He pointed it, and a second 
later Sam told him to fetch. Gingerly and in 
great fear that he was doing something wrong, 
he approached the bird, picked it up by one 
wing and brought it to his master. Instead 
of a cuffing he was the recipient of another 
petting. On two other occasions that day he 
managed to set and retrieve a bird. 
“Fool is all right. He’s got the making of 
a good dog about him,” remarked Sam to his 
wife that night. “I’ve broken a good many 
pups, but I never had an uglier looking brute 
or one with more sense in his head.” 
Early in November, the real flight com- 
menced. The birds had left eastern Nova 
Scotia altogether, scarcely a woodcock remained 
in New Brunswick, and in Maine, Massachusetts 
and northern New York and Vermont they 
were equally scarce. Nevertheless, the tract 
of country between Annapolis and Yarmouth 
was full of them; they would remain there 
until the frost closed up their feeding grounds 
and then they would go south. (I myself have 
killed a woodcock in Nova Scotia on the first 
of December, and the latest on record is one 
killed on the 5th.) 
Fool acquited himself nobly. Continual 
exercise made him gaunt and slinky, the tip 
of his tail became abraded from constant con- 
tact with the bushes, and the frill on his neck, 
which had blossomed out when he shed his 
puppy coat, as well as the fringes on his ears, 
became things of the past, thanks to the way 
in which Sam groomed and clipped the bur- 
dock seeds and cling-burrs from the dog’s 
hide. Before the frost came and the last 
woodcock flew to the south, Sam Armstrong 
was offered $75 for the pup—and he refused the 
offer. 
Mrs. Armstrong was somewhat indignant 
when she was informed of this. “I call it a 
shame to keep that hideous pup through until 
next September, Sam. Goodness knows, we 
want the money badly enough. He may be a 
good dog, but he may get poisoned or run his 
head into a fox snare, or he may take to 
chasing sheep. You only paid three dollars 
for him; and you couldn’t have got an uglier 
dog for thirty. Why didn’t you let him go, 
and get a decent-looking dog in his place?” 
Sam didn’t argue the point. He knew that 
he had ‘a good dog, a natural-born hunter,.even 
if he was as homely as a singed cat; and he 
intended to keep him. 
The winter was a miserable season for poor 
Fool. Just as soon as the snow came, a little 
beagle appeared on the scene. (She was reg- 
istered as “The Duchess of Buccleugh,’ but 
in the hunting fields she was known as 
“Dutch.”) Shortly after New Years, a lanky fox- 
hound was added to the family circle. To Fool’s 
great disgust, beagle or foxhound went out 
three or four times a week, while he remained 
at home. When Sam returned from a rabbit 
hunt with the beagle, he used to throw the 
rabbits on the woodhouse floor. Dutch would 
gather them into a pile and lie on them, and 
woe betide Fool or the foxhound if they pre- 
sumed to come near them. 
It was only on the coldest nights that Sam 
Armstrong allowed his dogs in the house. 
Fool slept in the woodhouse and the foxhound 
and beagle had boxes full of straw in the barn. 
Fool rarely saw the inside of the kitchen, but 
the other dogs always lay under the stove after 
a hard day’s work. In March they were both 
sent away. The rabbit season was over, and 
the foxes’ pelts were commencing to 
“crusted.” In other words, the heavy crust 
on the snow stripped off the long hair on the 
back when the fox dug down after field moles, 
and squeezed his body through the small 
orifice he had made in the crust. 
Fool was glad when they departed; but in 
a few days a far more obnoxious person ap- 
become 
peared at the house, in the shape of a negro 
servant girl. She was a necessary evil in the 
house during the spring, summer and early 
fall. Her predecessor had been a French- 
Canadian girl who liked 
Fool’s life a burden to him. 
throw sticks of stove wood at him when no 
one was looking, but she put cayenne pepper 
in his food and salt in his water. Naturally 
the dog refused his food, and when the hot 
weather came and his thirst became intoler- 
able he howled at night. Twice Sam tried 
the effect of a beating, but on the second oc- 
casion he noticed the full water pan in the 
morning and the dog’s frantic rush to the 
dogs. She made 
Not only did she 
watering place when he was unchained. The 
servant was discreet enough to keep her an- 
tipathy to the dog to herself. Mrs. Arm- 
strong disliked Fool, but she never ill-treated 
him, and Sam never allowed any one but him- 
self to lay a hand on one of his dogs. 
Toward the end of May a chicken hawk 
commenced to ravage the Armstrong’s poul- 
try. Chicken after chicken, and duckling after 
duckling were swept off. Armstrong was away 
in the fields most of the time, and he couldn’t 
get a shot at the marauder. Two or three 
times the hawk was baffled by Fool’s inter- 
vention and let its prey go to avoid the rush 
of the dog. For this he received praise and 
petting from both master and mistress. Then 
he realized that the hawk was an intruder to 
be chased off if such a thing was at all pos- 
sible. He spent most of his spare time watch- 
ing the chickens. 
The Supreme Court met in June, 
on the Grand Jury. As only one criminal case 
was on the docket and it was perfectly cer- 
tain to be sent up for trial, Sam took his wife 
to the county town with him on the day court 
Sadie, the negro, was instructed to 
Sam was 
opened. 
have dinner ready for them on their return, 
and she and Fool were left to keep house 
alone. Two or three days before, she had 
kicked Fool and he had for the first time in 
his life turned on her, 
When Sam and his wife reached the town 
they found that the services of the Grand 
Jury would be required for a very limited 
space of time. The solitary prisoner had 
broken jail the previous night. The judge 
scored the authorities unmercifully for their 
negligence, and a reward was offered for the 
fugitive’s apprehension. He was wanted on 
two criminal charges and a third of breaking 
jail. The jury was dismissed, and the Arm- 
strongs started home. 
Sadie prepared the table for dinner early 
in the afternoon. There was a cold chicken, 
a cold rhubarb pie, cheese and salad. The 
fried potatoes would be prepared as soon the 
Armstrongs returned. The men had their din- 
ner at the usual hour and went back to work 
in the field. Sadie intended to get dinner 
ready and then sleep until her master and 
mistress returned. As she finished laying the 
table, she heard the fly screen on the kitchen 
She went back to the kitchen and 
It was her half- 
door slam. 
found a burly mulatto there. 
brother, the escaped prisoner. 
“For the land’s sakes, what you doin’ here, 
Old man Armstrong never suspected 
Joe? 
sister; he may 
) : sy 
you an’ me was brother an 
come back any time,.an’ then you get your- 
self into trouble again.” 

