.

When he reached the fence, he followed it south till he came to
the open gate, where he took to the road as confidently as if he
knew for a certainty that it would lead him straight to his mate.
How eagerly he paddled along, glancing right and left, and
increasing his speed at every step! I kept about fifty yards
behind him. Presently he met a dog; he paused and eyed the animal
for a moment, and then turned to the right along a road which
diverged just at that point, and which led to the railroad
station. I followed, thinking the drake would soon lose his
bearings, and get hopelessly confused in the tangle of roads that
converged at the station.

But he seemed to have an exact map of the country in his mind; he
soon left the station road, went around a house, through a
vineyard, till he struck a stone fence that crossed his course at
right angles; this he followed eastward till it was joined by a
barbed wire fence, under which he passed and again entered the
highway he had first taken. Then down the road he paddled with
renewed confidence: under the trees, down a hill, through a
grove, over a bridge, up the hill again toward home.

Presently he found his clue cut in two by the railroad track;
this was something he had never before seen; he paused, glanced
up it, then down it, then at the highway across it, and quickly
concluded this last was his course. On he went again, faster and
faster.

He had now gone half the distance, and was getting tired. A
little pool of water by the roadside caught his eye. Into it he
plunged, bathed, drank, preened his plumage for a few moments,
and then started homeward again. He knew his home was on the
upper side of the road, for he kept his eye bent in that
direction, scanning the fields. Twice he stopped, stretched
himself up, and scanned the landscape intently; then on again. It
seemed as if an invisible cord was attached to him, and he was
being pulled down the road.

Just opposite a farm lane which led up to a group of farm
buildings, and which did indeed look like his home lane, he
paused and seemed to be debating with himself. Two women just
then came along; they lifted and flirted their skirts, for it was
raining, and this disturbed him again and decided him to take to
the farm lane. Up the lane he went, rather doubtingly, I thought.

In a few moments it brought him into a barnyard, where a group
of hens caught his eye. Evidently he was on good terms with hens
at hom