"I"d rather watch you--and Duke," replied Bobby, "than to shoot squirrels. Are there many of them?"
"Not up on the ridges," said Mr. Kincaid. "This fellow"s rather a straggler. But there"s plenty in the swamps and popples. Want to go after them?"
"Yes," said Bobby.
After that the two used often to follow the edges of the hardwood swamps, the creek bottoms, the hillsides of popples, and--later in the season--the sumac and berry-vine tangles of the old burnings, looking for that king of game-birds, the ruffed grouse.
Bobby became accustomed to the roar as the birds leaped into the air, so that he was able to follow with intelligent interest all the moves in the game, but never did his heart fail to leap in response. In later years, when he too owned a shotgun, this sudden shock of the nerves seemed to be the required stimulant to key him instantly to his best work. A sneaker--that is to say, a bird that flushed without the customary whirr--he was quite apt to miss.
Little by little, as he followed Mr. Kincaid, he learned the habits of his game: where it was to be found according to time of day and season of year. Strangely enough this he never a.n.a.lyzed. He did not consciously say to himself; "It is early in the day, and cold for the time of year, _therefore_ we"ll find them in the brush points just off the swamps, _because_ they will be working out to the hillsides for the sun after roosting in the swamps." His processes of judgment were more instinctive. By dint of repeated experience of finding birds in certain cover, that kind of cover meant birds to him. "A good place for "pats,""
said he to himself, and confidently expected to find them. That is the way good hunters are made.
All day long thus they would tramp, forcing their way through the blackthorn thickets; clambering over and under the dead-falls and debris of the slashings; climbing the side hills with the straight, silvery shafts of the poplars; wandering down the narrow aisles of the old logging roads; plodding doggedly across the unproductive fields that lay between patches of cover; always lured on in the hope of more game farther on, picking up a bird here, a bird there, each an adventure in itself. And occasionally, once in a great while, they ran against a glorious piece of luck, when the grouse rose in twos and threes, this way, that, and the other, until the air seemed full of them. Mr.
Kincaid, very intent, shot and loaded as fast as he was able. Sometimes things went right, and the bag was richer by two or three birds. Again they went wrong. The first grouse to rise might be the farthest away.
Mr. Kincaid would snap-shoot at it, only to be overwhelmed, after his gun was empty, by a half dozen flushing under his very feet. Or a miss at an easy first would spell humiliation all along the line. Then Bobby and Duke would be much cast down.
"Thing to do," said Mr. Kincaid, "is to shoot one bird at a time. If you get to thinking of the second before you"ve killed the first, you won"t get either. It"s a hard thing to learn. I haven"t got it down pat yet."
The short autumn days went fast. Before they knew it the pale sun had touched the horizon and the world was turning cold and gray. Then came the long laden tramp back to old Bucephalus, or perhaps to town, if they had started out afoot. They were always very tired; but, as to Bobby, at least, very happy.
Generally speaking they wandered through the country at will. Shooting was not then as popular as it is now, nor the farms as close together.
Sometimes, however, they came across signs warning against trespa.s.s or hunting. Then, if the cover seemed especially desirable, Mr. Kincaid used sometimes to try to obtain permission of the owner of the land.
Once or twice, having overlooked the sign, they were ordered off. The farmers were good-natured, even though firm.
But some four miles to the eastward lay a deep long swamp following the windings between hills where Mr. Kincaid and Bobby had a very disagreeable experience. It was late in the afternoon, so Bobby had become tired. Duke made game on the outskirts of a dense thicket, hesitated, then led the way cautiously into the tangle.
"It"s pretty thick," Mr. Kincaid advised Bobby; "you"d better sit on the stump there until I come out."
Bobby did so. A moment or so after Mr. Kincaid had disappeared, the little boy became aware of a man approaching across the stump-dotted field. He was a short, thickset man, with a broad face almost entirely covered with a beard, a thick nose, and little, inflamed snapping eyes.
He was clad in faded and dingy overalls, and carried a pitchfork.
"Who"s that shooting in here?" he shouted at Bobby as soon as he was within hearing. "What do you mean by hunting here? You must have pa.s.sed right by the sign."
"Don"t you want shooting here? No; we didn"t see the sign," replied Bobby.
By this time the man had approached, and Bobby could see his bloodshot little eyes flickering with anger.
"You lying little snipe," he roared. "You must have seen the sign. You couldn"t help it. I"ve a mind to tan your hide good."
"What"s this?" asked Mr. Kincaid"s quiet voice.
The man whirled about.
"Oh, it"s you, is it?" he snarled. "Well, what do you mean by trespa.s.sing on my farm?"
"I didn"t know it was your farm, in the first place; and I didn"t know shooting was prohibited in the second place."
"That"s too thin. You came right by that sign at the corner. Now just make tracks off this farm about as fast as you can go."
"Certainly," agreed Mr. Kincaid, quite unruffled. "I never shoot on a man"s land when he doesn"t want me to."
He turned, and at once the man became abusive, just as a dog gains courage as his enemy pa.s.ses. Bobby listened, his eyes wide with dismay and shock. Never had he heard quite that sort of language. Finally Mr.
Kincaid happened to glance down at his small companion. He slipped the sh.e.l.ls from his gun and leaned it against a stump.
"About face!" he said sharply to the man. "You can"t talk that way before this baby. We are going off your place as straight and as fast as we can. You shoulder your pitchfork and go back to your house."
The man started again on a string of objurgation.
"I mean what I say," said Mr. Kincaid with deadly emphasis. "About face.
If you open your mouth again I shall certainly kill you."
The old man"s bent shoulders had straightened, his mild blue eye flashed fire. So he must have looked to his soldiers before the storming of Molino del Rey. His hands were quite empty of a weapon, and his age was hardly a match for the other"s brute strength. Nevertheless the farmer at once turned back, after a parting, but milder, admonition.
Mr. Kincaid picked up his gun, tucked it under his arm and trudged forward. Bobby was trembling violently with excitement and anger.
"Why--why--" he gasped, as yet unable to cast his thoughts into speech.
Mr. Kincaid glanced down. A faint and amused smile flickered under his moustache.
"You aren"t going to do that sort of a crank the honour of keeping stirred up, are you?" "That"s Pritchard--the worst crank in Michigan.
He"s quarrelled with every one. I never did know where his farm was, or I should have taken pains to keep off."
They climbed into the cart and drove away toward town.
"I believe I"ll make a hunter of you, Bobby," pursued Mr. Kincaid after they were going. "It"s a good thing to be. Of course there"s the fun of it--the "pats," the quail, the jacksnipe, the "c.o.c.k. But then there"s the other part, too."
[Ill.u.s.tration: "I MEAN WHAT I SAY," SAID MR. KINCAID WITH DEADLY EMPHASIS]
They had come out on the sandhills over the town. Mr. Kincaid drew up Bucephalus and contemplated it as it lay below them, its roofs half hidden in the mauve and lilac of bared branches, its columns of smoke rising straight up in the frosty air.
"Of course, I don"t know, Bobby, whether you"ll ever be a hunter or not.
It all depends on where you live and how--the chance to get out, I mean.
But, sonny, you can always be a sportsman, whatever you do. A sportsman does things because he likes them, Bobby, for no other reason--not for money, nor to become famous, nor even to win--although all these things may come to him and it is quite right that he take them and enjoy them.
Only he does not do the things for them, but for the pleasure of doing.
And a right man does not get pleasure in doing a thing if in any way he takes an unfair advantage. That"s being a sportsman. And, after all, that"s all I can teach you if we hunt together ten years. Do you think you can remember that?"
"Yes, sir," replied Bobby soberly.
"There"s only one other thing," went on Mr. Kincaid, "that is really important, and it isn"t necessary if you remember the other things I"ve told you. It"s pretty easy sometimes to do a thing because you see everybody else doing it. Always remember that a true sportsman in every way is about the scarcest thing they make--and the finest. So naturally the common run of people don"t live up to it. If _you_--not the thinking you, nor even the conscience you, but the way-down-deep-in-your-heart _you_ that you can"t fool nor trick nor lie to--if that _you_ is satisfied, it"s all right." He turned and grinned humorously at his small companion. "I"ve nothing but a little income and an old horse and two dogs and a few friends, Bobby; I"ve lived thirty years in that little place there; and a great many excellent people call me a good-for-nothing old loafer, but I"ve learned the things I"m telling you now, and I"m just conceited and stuck-up enough to think I"ve made a howling success of it."
"_I_ don"t think that," said Bobby, laying his cheek against the man"s threadbare sleeve.
"Of course you don"t, Bobby," said Mr. Kincaid cheerfully, "and I"ll tell you why. It"s because you and I speak the same language, although you"re a little boy and I"m a big man."