Joe fired
the old gun to start 'em and, great Jerushy! in a minute the sky was
dark with 'em; I just blazed away and they dropped thick all around us,
and it kept us tol'ble busy for a while a pickin' 'em up."
"Pop, tell 'em about the old water bird down in the swamp," said Joe
with a wicked laugh.
"Yes, tell us; what was it, pop?" urged Betty.
"Oh, nothin' partickler, I reckon; just an old bird that hadn't the
grit to get away from me," and the man gave a low chuckle at the
remembrance.
"My, oh! the way them old birds hung around and wouldn't scare worth a
cent when we was right up close to 'em was funny, I tell ye," and Joe
leaned back in his chair and slapped his knees in a fresh burst of
merriment.
"There was eggs in the nest was the cause," said the man; "them birds
are always as tame as kittens then. You can go right up to 'em and
they won't leave the nest. Them birds has two broods in a season, and
then's the chance to get a good whack at 'em."
Joe rubbed his hands together in delight as he turned to his sister,
"You'd ought to have seen 'em, Betty. There was pop in his rubber
boots a creepin' along--a c-r-e-e-p-i-n' along as sly as a mouse toward
'em, and there they stayed. The male bird he fluttered and' squawked,
and the female she stuck to the nest till pop he got right up and he
didn't even have to shoot her.
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