8 j pi1 c
VOL X, No. 4.
A SETTER DOG'S REVERIE
SATURDAY MORNING, DECEMBER TWENTY-SECOND, 1906.
Ponto Meditates on Various Sportsmen
and Their Ways.
minting- Field from tlte Dog's View,
point With Keen Comment
Upon Observations.
62
HREE months more of
this !
When the guides take
me out alone or with a
man who knows some
thing about hunting, I
do enjoy it, but when they take me out
with men like the one today, it makes me
awfully nervous and I suppose it makes
Morgan nervous too. He can't cuss them
and so he scolds me for the least little
thing. I know he doesn't mean it, though,
because he gives me a pat once in a
while, when the men aren't looking.
" "I can tell what kind of a hunter a man
is as soon as I am out of the dog crate.
Take this morning for example. When
we stopped in front of the Thagard house
and Morgan let me out, the man jumped
down, grabbed his gun case (which was
brand new) and took the barrels and
stock out and laid them in the sand.
Then he closed up the gun case and did
it up in a blanket and put it in ,the car
riage, as if the case were much more val
uable than the gun. Then while Morgan
was trying to get Nona out (she's my
hunting companion), he took about five
minutes to get the gun together. Then
he couldn't close it after he had put the
cartridges in. He banged it hard enough
to break it, but he didn't know enough to
brush off the sand that had gotten all
over it, and all the while the gun was
pointing right at me, or Morgan, or Shaw,
or the driver, and the sight of the dark
eyes of a gun barrel looking into yours
isn't pleasant.
"Shaw got out of the way, walking
rather fast, for' Shaic, and I tried to get
out of the way too, but Morgan kept
yanking me back, being busy and not no
ticing what was taking place. I thought
Morgan never would get that fool Nona
out of the crate, but when he did and
looked up and saw those gun barrels
pointing at him, and the man trying to
close the gun with a bang hard enough to
iar off the hammers if the gun hadn't
happened to be at safe, you ought to have
seen him side step, but that was no excuse
for his yanking me and Nona so hard.
Then Morgan made a flank movement,
asked the man if he couldn't help him and
the gun was soon closed.
"Well, Morgan side stepped all the rest
of the day, keeping time with that man
who, every half minute, pointed the gun
in his direction. I heard Morgan tell
Shaw (the day he was out with that fellow
with the automatic gun which went off
three times while he was showing how
safe it was) that he didn't used to mind it,
but now he was married it made him
nervous, and Shaw's reply was that he
reckoned that man would shoot some
thing some day and it wouldn't be quail !
"When we got over the fence, in front of
Thagard's, Morgan was so polite in taking
the man's gun for him that he didn't see
that Nona got the first point and that I
stole it (I hate to back), and so Nona was
mad with me because Morgan patted me
and praised me for the find. I shouldn't
have cared much if I had ' flushed the
brush. Every time he kicked it made me
jump all over inside, my ears fly back,
and I could feel the hair stand up on my
back. Then I knew that Nona was step
ping up every time he did this, because I
could hear Morgan saying "Whoa Nona"
and telling the man to "Walk right in,
sir" "Step right up, sir" "I shink the
birds are away ahead of you sir" and I
knew he was afraid I would break.
"Well, finally the birds got up and flew
right over the man's head into the woods.
He didn't get any because he fired right
into the middle of them and didn't pick
out any single bird, but he said he thought
he got two with his first and shot a little
to the right on his second.
"That was about what I expected from
that kind of a hunter, and Morgan had to
keep us hunting for the birds he thought
he had killed for five minutes to satisfy
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PRICE FIVE CENTS
THE SADDLE PICNICKERS
Graphic Pen Picture of Pleasures of a
Day In the Woods.
God's Out of Doors Claims Them From
the Earl j Morning' Until
Twilight's CJlow.
"EVERY MUSCLE IN MY BODY WAS ASHAKD AS STONE."
birds because I knew the man couldn't
hit them.
"My, but I soon wished I had backed.
The birds were about ten feet in front of
me, lying in a little bunch of wire grass.
Morgan said : "Walk right in, sir, in front
of the dogs," but the man said he thought
he would walk up to the side of me so as
to drive the birds out in to the open in
stead of into the woods. Morgan said he
thought it would be hard to drive them,
but the man said he thought he could and
so he started walking towards me.
"I was awfully excited and it seemed
as if he never would get up to the birds.
Every muscle in my body was as hard as
stone and I had a creepy feeling all along
my back. The man held his gun up to
his shoulder and would take a step or two
towards me and then kick around in the
him, but I knew that Morgan knew there
weren't any dead birds from the way
he worked us, and that was some conso
lation. "While Morgan was keeping me busy,
that sneak Nona got away and pointed a
single in the woods, so we went down to
her. Nona was awfully nervous for she
had got the scent down wind and couldn't
tell where the bird was exactly, and when
the man started kicking around in the
dry leaves, you ought to have seen her
begin to shake, lie walked all around
her and I guess Morgan was afraid she
would break so he sent us on. I circled
and came up wind and got the body scent
and pointed, just as Nona who had cir
cled the other way, got it too. We must
have made a pretty picture, but the man,
(Concluded on page .)
Mtf "juifjl GROOM rides up to The
PjnSL 3 Holly Inn entrance with
a dozen saddle horses
S rPlfn (5 clattering behind him,
sP&s fttwedi nt far away,
iSSt Tiffil by several carriages.
A score of people appear upon the hotel
veranda and, close after them, a back
ground of interested onlookers. Bellboys
wedge their way through the crowd with
mysterious packages which they stow
away in the teams, there is the noise of
preparation, and presently the gay cara
van is moving away, laughter and con
versation mingling with the clank of
steel, the rattle of wheels and the, thump
of hoofs.
The "Saddle Picnickers" are off for
the day.
Through the Village they go, past the
power house and the stable, across the
little viaduct, between the kennels and
the sand pit, and with the click of the
wire gate The Open claims them.
It is a perfect day. The sun bathes the
landscape in glory, the air sets the blood
tingling, and the blue dome of the sky
blends with the deep green of the pines,
the rich brown of the oaks and the warm
ochre of the sedge grass into a symphony
of color contrast. God's out of doors
lies all about, desolate, waste land in the
literal sense, but how beautiful it is ?
The Unknown lies beyond and it
beckons ! Keins tighten and horses spring
forward, rejoicing with their riders in the
exuberance of life. Cool air fans the
brow, tempering the welcome rays of the
sun, the landscape flits away on either
side, the road vanishes as a river, below,
and winds on like a ribbon, beyond.
There is a pause for a steep incline, a
scramble up a rough hillock, and another
gallop through the open. Then a steep
descent to a tiny stream and on up the
opposite hillside, through the County
Gate, past a native home with no sign of
life, and on again. McKenzie's wide ford
is crossed mid flying water and happy
jest, and the damp sand crunches under
the horses hoofs until the second stream,
a short distance away is passed, and once
more the patch leads through the sedge
grass and oaks. Then a sharp incline, a
(Concluded on page 2.)