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stood stiff as steel, he visualized her statuesque points. Frozen except for the tip of her cropped tail that wiggled like a magician's wand, it was as if she conjured up rainbows and wildfire and living jewels from the earth when a cock pheasant erupted into view cursing a blue streak. Leaving the Lab to his folly, he abandoned hope and turned toward the truck when the unbelievable and unmistakable explosion of a cackling rooster blew up like fireworks at the tip of Rocky's nose. Jack glanced at the wide-eyed Lab with resentment before leaning down on one knee. Rolling the dog over and holding him by the ears, he pressed his Whirling, Jack saw the bird rise from the grass and rocket toward blue sky and safety, the biggest, longest-tailed pheasant he'd ever seen chased by the craziest Lab on the planet. Never in his wildest dreams had he expected this moment with this dog. It was the bird of a lifetime. " I guess there's room in my heart for a crazy Lab after all," he said, hugging Rocky to his chest. T forehead to the animal's face and stared him down until he looked away. He'd read in a magazine that this technique would establish him as the alpha male. "Now I know where the wild things are," he said. "Alright, you crazy bastard, let's try this again." a dog on a bird. Walking fast, he stumbled down and across furrows and fell 50 yards behind the hard- charging dog, who quartered back and forth, sorting bird redolence like a deck of cards for one Jack hoped was the color of a king. "Just one rooster," he gasped on the dead run, breathing raggedly 75 yards behind Rocky, who was rushing side to side, nose pinned to the ground like metal to magnet, shortening his crisscrosses until he stitched a zigzagged seam down the field in his own dead sprint after the running bird. With burning legs and searing lungs, Jack hastened to keep up, knowing the flush was imminent, and refused the sweet temptation his body offered with every stride to stop. he second time free, the Lab ran half as far as before, slowed by scent long enough to allow Jack to close within gun range. Soon he noted the slashing tail and telltale body language of When a hen flushed and flew back toward him, Jack stopped to watch the bird flare to his right well within range before gliding into a neighboring cornfield. Then he crouched with fatigue, hands to knees, and gathered himself between gasps. Maybe this is as good as it gets, he thought, watching Rocky give brief chase before returning to rework the scent. "Never mind," but Rocky ignored him and continued to hunt feverishly, circling back to follow what Jack assumed was the same hen's scent. Pausing to watch, he was bemused that the dog didn't know any better. Blue would never retrace the path of a flown bird, unlike this knucklehead, who obviously couldn't tell the difference between an old trail and a new one. Caught by surprise, he hesitated before firing, breaking one wing with copper number 5s at the end of gun range and scratching the bird down halfway to nowhere. Seconds later he stood alone in silence listening to the clouds brush together like he used to with Blue. O Ashamed of himself for giving up on the dog, he waited an eternity, it seemed, for Rocky to return. Worried sick as the minutes mounted and promising himself he would do better if he had the chance, he noticed a speck appear at the farthest end of another field that adjoined the first. "Rocky, come boy, come!" he shouted, rejoicing as he ran toward the tired, proud Lab who pranced with the fierce-eyed rooster clutched in his mouth until Jack took it gently from him. Tongue ripped and face bloodied from thorns and wild raspberries and cockspurs, Rocky jumped high after the flailing wings as Jack swiftly killed the bird. Then he held it for the dog to nuzzle while admiring the dazzling, iridescent feathers that gleamed like gems in the late-morning sun. Never in his wildest dreams had he expected this moment with this dog. It was the bird of a lifetime. "I guess there's room in my heart for a crazy Lab after all," he said, hugging Rocky to his chest. n the drive home, specks of snow ticked against the windshield while Rocky slept in Blue's place on the front seat. The coming of winter reminded Jack of a line from an old poem: "If winter comes, can spring be far behind?" Winter will come soon enough for all of us, he thought. For now, though, he looked beyond it toward the beginning of fall when nature would borrow Midas' touch and turn the trees to treasure again, and the voice of autumn would stir his hunter's heart once more. Rubbing Rocky's ear, he could hardly wait to start over. SPOR TIN G CL ASSICS 150