d beautiful than the young
fawn and his dam that he had seen on the Fort Riley trail. For a
moment, fascinated by the rare spectacle, he gazed wonderingly at the
ducks as they swam around, chasing each other, and eagerly hunting for
food. It was but for a moment, however. Then he raised his shot-gun,
and taking aim into the thickest of the flock, fired both barrels in
quick succession. Instantly the gay clamor of the pretty creatures
ceased, and the flock rose with a loud whirring of wings, and wheeled
away over the tree-tops. The surface of the water, to Sandy's excited
imagination, seemed to be fairly covered with birds, some dead, and
some struggling with wounded limbs. The other two boys, startled by
the double report from Sandy's gun, came scampering down the trail,
just as the lad, all excitement, was stripping off his clothes to wade
into the creek for his game.

"Ducks! Black ducks! I've shot a million of 'em!" cried the boy,
exultingly; and in another instant he plunged into the water up to his
middle, gathering the ducks by the legs and bringing them to the bank,
where Charlie and Oscar, discreetly keeping out of the oozy creek,
received them, counting the birds as they threw them on the grass.

"Eighteen, all told!" shouted Oscar, when the last bird had been
caught, as it floundered about among the weeds, and brought ashore.

"Eighteen ducks in two shots!" cried Sandy, his freckled face fairly
beaming with delight. "Did ever anybody see such luck?"

They all thought that nobody ever had.

"What's that on your leg?" asked Oscar, stooping to pick from Sandy's
leg a long, brown object looking like a flat worm. To the boys'
intense astonishment, the thing would not come off, but stretched out
several inches in length, holding on by one end.

Sandy howled with pain. "It is something that bites," he cried.

"And there's another,--and another! Why, he's covered all over with
'em!" exclaimed Oscar.

Sure enough, the lad's legs, if not exactly covered, were well
sprinkled with the things.

"Scrape 'em off with your knife!" cried Sandy.

Oscar usually carried a sheath-knife at his belt, "more for the style
of the thing, than use," he explained; so with this he quickly took
off the repulsive creatures, which, loosening their hold, dropped to
the ground limp and shapeless.

"Leeches," said Charlie, briefly, as he poked one of them over with a
stick. The mystery was explained, and wherever one of them had bee