a rim of marsh and then another big rim of swamp cedars, then
the hills all about; neither inlet nor outlet; a queer pond anyway
and queer things happen on it, same as they did that day.
Grandfather had got half way through the swamp cedars when he came
to a little opening which he had to cross. Just then there came up
on the east wind a big flock of telltales, 762 of them, whirling
over the hills without a sound till they saw him. Then they began
to yelp."

"Look here, Jotham," I am always careful to say at this point,
"How could he tell that there were just 762 of them? He couldn't
count so many as they flew."

"Didn't have to count 'em as they flew," answers Jotham. "He
counted 'em after he had shot 'em.

"Well, they began to yelp 'Look out for him! Look out for him!'
and the ducks knew what that meant. All that great blanket of
ducks uncovered the pond with one motion. Grandfather said it was
just like a curtain rising straight up, for they were all black
ducks. There is no other duck can go straight up in the air. Other
ducks slide off on a slant against the wind."

How Jotham manages to put the lonely quaver of the yellow-leg's
call into that phrase "Look out for him! Look out for him!" with
its four-note repetition is more than I know, but he always does,
and you can see the big flock swing through the mist as he says
it.

*****

"Grandfather was pretty mad to lose that chance at good game and
he made up his mind that he'd take it out of the telltales, so he
began to whistle 'em back. He was a master hand at any wild call
and pretty soon he lit the flock. There they were, a rim of
yellow-legs all around the pond, a perfect circle except in one
place, where some dogwood bushes made down to the water's edge.
Then granddad had a great idea. He saw his chance to kill every
one of those infernal telltales where they sat. He studied on the
size of that circle for a minute. Then he put the long barrel of
that old gun between two swamp cedar stumps and bent on it
carefully. He kept doing this, looking at the circle, then bending
the gun barrel till he had the gun bent just on the curve of the
circle of yellow-legs sitting round the pond. Then he smiled for
he knew he had 'em. He crept carefully into the dogwood bushes
till he was in just the right place, took a good aim round that
circle, and then he unlatched on 'em.

"Well, he'd figured that circle just right. The shot swung round
it and killed every one