Sunset Ranch: A Story of a Boy's Adventures in the West — page 195: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

The Gray-Coated Pirate. 183 what it is. Can’t stop themselves. That’s about fe “It is singular. No other animal on the prairie has that same curiosity, I suppose.” “TI reckon not so bad as antelope, anyway.” “And yet,’ said Cuthbert, reflectively, “I have seen pretty much the same thing carried out on Chesapeake Bay, with duck as the victims.” Karl looked at him curiously to see if he were really in earnest. “Ducks? Come, that’s a new one on me.” “Tl tell you how it’s done. We have a certain kind of dog educated up to the business. When a great raft of ducks persists in settling out of gun- shot from the shore, the hunters hide in the bushes, and then start the dog to work. He seems to enter into the spirit of the thing, races down the little beach, rolls and tumbles and squirms as though in a fit. “Apparently, the wild duck has about as much cu- riosity in its anatomy as an antelope, for, by de- grees, the whole flock keeps swimming in closer to the shore, with necks outstretched and showing every indication of being fascinated by the spectacle. “Of course, when within easy gun shot, a mur- derous fire is poured into the thick of them by the concealed hunters, and the water is often covered with the dead and dying. We call this method of duck-shooting ‘tolling,’ as the little dog tolls or draws the birds in.” “All that is new to me, and I’d like to have a shy at it myself,” declared Karl. “You will, when we go East,” said his chum, as if that part of it were all arranged. Between them they carried the antelope to the trees and hung a couple of carcasses high above the best jump a hungry wolf could make. Comiclooks C©