. Old Ironsides, the hero of Tripoli and 1812, and other tales and adventures on sea and land . they were lying in their boat. They then recog-nized it as a loon. Well aware of the birds amazing power to dodgeany shot, they nevertheless resolved to try theirskill on this one. Accordingly, they rowed cau-tiously toward the big bird, which was frolickingin the water, as though unaware of danger. It hadits weather eye open, however, and, as the boatapproached, sidled off as though not fully pleasedwith the appearance of things. A steamer just then was on its way up the lake, 200 OLD IRONSIDES. an
. Old Ironsides, the hero of Tripoli and 1812, and other tales and adventures on sea and land . they were lying in their boat. They then recog-nized it as a loon. Well aware of the birds amazing power to dodgeany shot, they nevertheless resolved to try theirskill on this one. Accordingly, they rowed cau-tiously toward the big bird, which was frolickingin the water, as though unaware of danger. It hadits weather eye open, however, and, as the boatapproached, sidled off as though not fully pleasedwith the appearance of things. A steamer just then was on its way up the lake, 200 OLD IRONSIDES. and, as its course would bring it between the hunt-ers and the loon, the men decided to open the cam-paign at once. This they did by blazing away alltogether. The water was flung into spray, and had the birdremained a single second, it would have been rid-dled ; but it wasnt there, *nor was it visible any- JUmllf t BSi5 ?.. ~h »•—-*-r***^^ j^lf?t^*!—^ -^ * jj—•g-*-^Jjfe-~r g- il , ^f^^^ -—• ffk^r .Jrtlr^r ^r- T:¥ (. .. -==sfiii?5x-•• > 5-i ff^i-^^m ^AT —»-!=.—~S^L-. JOHNNY LET OUT A SINGLE YELL, DROPPED THE ROD AND RAN. where. The steamboat eclipsed the view for a fewminutes, but, when it passed, the loon was observedcalmly swimming along, some twenty or thirty rodsfurther away. The hunters were warming up to their work,and rowed with all vigor toward it; but the bird A LIGHTNING DODGER. 201 was as wary as ever, and with no more apparenteffort than before, glided away from them, its longneck outstretched and its bright eyes fixed uponits enemies. One of the young men fired again, but the loondived with the same wonderful celerity as hunters immediately bent all their energiesto the oars, believing it would continue its courseunder the water, and come up so near them that itcould be shot before diving again. Reaching the spot where it was expected to reap-pear, the hunters dropped their oars, and caught uptheir guns, ready to let drive the in
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