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Since then, two other plays, The Constant Couple and Sir Harry Wildair, had proved that he had wit and fancy, and knew how to knit them together into a rattling comedy. But he was poor, always in pursuit of that timid wild-fowl, the occasional guinea, and with no sort of disposition to settle down into a heavy citizen.
The sight raised our spirits. We made towards it, though it was somewhat out of our way. It might be the Saint John, or one of its affluents, or perhaps a long lake. We had had no food all day. We should be certain to find wild-fowl on its banks, whether it was a lake or a stream. On reaching it, we were still uncertain what it was.
Our fire, however, had produced an effect we had not expected. As we were passing a low cliff, loud cries of wild-fowl saluted our ears. The birds, roused by the appearance of the light, flew off from their nests, and came circling around us; so we fired several shot at them, and brought three down.
Furthermore, the market gunners of Currituck are robbing the people of 16 states of tens of thousands of wild-fowl that legitimately belong to them, during the annual autumn flight. The accompanying map shows how it is done. To-day, the cash rewards of the market-hunter who can reach a large city with his product are dangerously great.
"Marooned," quoth Joe, "to be eaten by snakes and alligators." "Nonsense," snapped Master Cockrell, who had hunted deer and wild-fowl on the Carolina coast. "We can pick our way with care. I have seen pleasanter landscapes than this, but I like it better than Blackbeard's company."
The hills here are partly wooded and in the valleys nestle lakes literally black with wild-fowl bittern that rise heavy-winged and furry with a boo-m-m; grey geese holding political caucus with raucous screeching of the honking ganders; black duck and mallard and teal; inland gulls white as snow and fearless of hunters; little match-legged phalaropes fishing gnats from the wet sand.
There was an innumerable flock of wild-fowl arranged in rows along the sides of the pools left by the tide, and we were again amused by the singular effect of the refraction upon them, and the grotesque and distorted forms they exhibited. Swans, pelicans, ducks, and geese, were mingled together, and, according to their distance from us, presented different appearances.
Heretofore, you have permitted hired market gunners from outside your borders to slaughter the wild-fowl of your Sunk Lands literally by millions, and ship them to northern markets, with very little benefit to your people. It is time for that slaughter to cease. Don't maintain a duck and goose shambles in Mississippi County, year after year, as North Carolina does!
At the same time, it cannot be said that his work has perished while not only pastors but people feel so strongly the inspiration of that heroic life. A little seed lay underneath the ground, While from the south a mild wind-current blew, And from the tropics to the northward flew Long, angular lines of wild-fowl with a sound Of silken wings.
But two boys could not keep silence long with the sun shining and the place around wearing so novel a guise; and Dick soon burst out with: "Look, Tom; look at the teal!" He pointed to a flock forming quite a patch upon the water some hundreds of yards away. "Ay," said the squire; "it's good for the wild-fowl, but bad for us. The sooner the place is drained now, neighbour, the better, eh?"