oot and overhead. It was the kind
of day about which even the most deliberately cheerful can find little
to say except that this sort of thing can't last forever, you know.
However, if I had had a true instinct for "nature," I should, I suppose,
have seen at a glance that it was just the day to go and lie in a
marsh. But this did not occur to me. Instead, I thought of open fires,
and popcorn, and hot peanuts, and novels, and fudge, and other such
things, which are supposed to be valuable as palliatives on days like
these.

The telephone rang. "Oh, it's you, Jonathan!... What? No, not really!
You wouldn't!... Well, if the ducks like it, they may have it all. I'm
not a duck.... Why, of course, if you really want me to, I'll go,
only.... All right, I'll get out the things.... Three o'clock train?
You'll have to hurry!"

I hung up the receiver and sat a moment, dazed, looking out at the reek
of weather. Then I shook myself and darted upstairs to the
hunting-closet. In half an hour the bag was packed and Jonathan was at
the door. In an hour we were on the train, and at twilight we were
tramping out into a fog-swept marsh. Grayness was all around us;
underfoot was mud, glimmering patches of soft snow, and the bristly
stubble of the close-cut marsh grass.

"What fools we are!" I murmured.

"Why?" said Jonathan contentedly.

"Oh, if you can't see--" I said.

And then, suddenly, as we walked, my whole attitude changed. The
weather, as weather, seemed something that belonged in a city--very far
away, and no concern of mine. This wasn't weather, here where we walked;
it was a gray and boundless world of mystery. We raised our heads high
and breathed long, deep breaths as the fog drifted against our faces. We
were aware of dim masses of huddling bushes, blurred outlines of sheds
and fences. Then only the level marsh stretched out before us and around
us.

"Can we find our way out again?" I murmured, though without real
anxiety.

"Probably," said Jonathan. "Isn't it great! You feel as if you had a
soul out here! By the way, what was it you said about fools?"

"I forget," I said.

We went on and on, I don't know just where or how long, until we came to
the creek, where the tide sets in and out. I should have walked into it
if Jonathan hadn't held me back. As we followed it, there rose a hoarse,
raucous "_Ngwak! ngwak! ngwak!_" and a great rush of wings. Jonathan
dropped on one knee, gun up, but we saw nothing.

"We'll