"Oh, yes, we catches dem in 'gums.' "
"What are gums?" I asked.
"See dat down dare? Dat's a 'gum.' "
I saw a rude box-trap made of rough boards. It seems these traps,
and many other things, such as beehives, and tubs, etc., are
frequently made in the South from a hollow gum-tree; hence the name
gum has come to have a wide application.
The ducks flew quite briskly that night; I could hear the whistle
of their wings as I stood upon the shore indulging myself in
listening. The ear loves a good field as well as the eye, and the
night is the best time to listen, to put your ear to Nature's
keyhole and see what the whisperings and the preparations mean.
"Dark night, that from the eye his
function takes,
The ear more quick of apprehension
makes,"
says Shakespeare. I overheard some muskrats engaged in a very
gentle and affectionate jabber beneath a rude pier of brush and
earth upon which I was standing. The old, old story was evidently
being rehearsed under there, but the occasional splashing of the
ice-cold water made it seem like very chilling business; still we
all know it is not. Our decoys had not been brought in, and I
distinctly heard some ducks splash in among them. The sound of
oar-locks in the distance next caught my ears. They were so far
away that it took some time to decide whether or not they were
approaching. But they finally grew more distinct,--the steady,
measured beat of an oar in a wooden lock, a very pleasing sound
coming over still, moonlit waters. It was an hour before the boat
emerged into view and passed my post. A white, misty obscurity
began to gather over the waters, and in the morning this had grown
to be a dense fog. By early dawn one of my friends was again in
the box, and presently his gun went bang! bang! then bang! came
again from the second gun he had taken with him, and we imagined
the water strewn with ducks. But he reported only one. It floated
to him and was picked up, so we need not go out. In the dimness
and silence we rowed up and down the shore in hopes of starting up
a stray duck that might possibly decoy. We saw many objects that
simulated ducks pretty well through the obscurity, but they failed
to take wing on our approach. The most pleasing thing we saw was a
large, rude boat, propelled by four colored oarsmen. It looked as
if it might have come out of some old picture. Two oarsmen were
seated in the bows, pulling, and two stood up in the stern, facing
their companions, each working a long oar, bending and recovering
and uttering a low, wild chant. The spectacle emerged from the fog
on the one hand and plunged into it on the other.
Later in the morning, we were attracted by another craft. We heard
it coming down upon us long before it emerged into view. It made a
sound as of some unwieldy creature slowly pawing the water, and
when it became visible through the fog the sight did not belie the
ear. We beheld an awkward black hulk that looked as if it might
have been made out of the bones of the first steamboat, or was it
some Virginia colored man's study of that craft? Its wheels
consisted each of two timbers crossing each other at right angles.
As the shaft slowly turned, these timbers pawed and pawed the
water. It hove to on the flats near our quarters, and a colored
man came off in a boat. To our inquiry, he said with a grin that
his craft was a "floating saw-mill."
After a while I took my turn in the box, and, with a life-preserver
for a pillow, lay there on my back, pressed down between the narrow
sides, the muzzle of my gun resting upon my toe and its stock upon
my stomach, waiting for the silly ducks to come. I was rather in
hopes they would not come, for I felt pretty certain that I could
not get up promptly in such narrow quarters and deliver my shot
with any precision. As nothing could be seen, and as it was very
still, it was a good time to listen again. I was virtually under
water, and in a good medium for the transmission of sounds. The
barking of dogs on the Maryland shore was quite audible, and I
heard with great distinctness a Maryland lass call some one to
breakfast. They were astir up at Mount Vernon, too, though the fog
hid them from view. I heard the mocking or Carolina wren
alongshore calling quite plainly the words a Georgetown poet has
put in his mouth,--"Sweetheart, sweetheart, sweet!" Presently I
heard the whistle of approaching wings, and a solitary duck
alighted back of me over my right shoulder,--just the most awkward
position for me she could have assumed. I raised my head a little,
and skimmed the water with my eye. The duck was swimming about
just beyond the decoys, apparently apprehensive that she was
intruding upon the society of her betters. She would approach a
little, and then, as the stiff, aristocratic decoys made no sign of
welcome or recognition, she would sidle off again. "Who are they,
that they should hold themselves so loftily and never condescend to
notice a forlorn duck?" I imagined her saying. Should I spring up
and show my hand and demand her surrender? It was clearly my duty
to do so. I wondered if the boys were looking from shore, for the
fog had lifted a little. But I must act, or the duck would be off.
I began to turn slowly in my sepulchre and to gather up my benumbed
limbs; I then made a rush and got up, and had a fairly good shot as
the duck flew across my bows, but I failed to stop her. A man in
the woods in the line of my shot cried out angrily, "Stop shooting
this way!"
I lay down again and faced the sun, that had now burned its way
through the fog, till I was nearly blind, but no more ducks
decoyed, and I called out to be relieved.
With our one duck, but with many pleasant remembrances, we returned
to Washington that afternoon.