To this the club received the following reply, worthy of preservation for its wit, humor, and literary ability: “_To N---- E----, Secretary of Branch No. 3, Ohio Game Club_: “MY DEAR SIR--Your esteemed favor of yesterday has been received, and at an early date I hasten to reply, not knowing just what punishment would await me should I fail to be prompt in my responses. As to the ‘birds of various kinds’ of which you speak, I move to amend in order to make more specific and certain, by stating what kind of birds, what number, when killed, and by what means. If required to plead to the general charge, I would enter a plea of ‘not guilty.’ Permit me to say that I only killed birds of _prey_, and I only _pray_ that I may kill more of them. I always bury all I kill; I _berry_ them before I kill them, and _bury_ them afterwards. “I am exceedingly sorry that my fancied misdeeds have rendered necessary a special meeting of the ‘club,’ or to have been the innocent occasion of the least trouble to either the officers or members of that useful and ornamental body. Be kind enough to say, with my compliments, to the association of which you have the honor to be secretary, that the doors of the Temple of Justice, like ‘the glorious gates of the gospel of grace,’ stand open night and day, and the ‘club’ will please consider itself invited to enter and become ‘involved in the intricate meshes of the law.’ “Allow me further to say that I expect tomorrow morning to be on my premises, near the city, engaged in my usual and ordinary amusement of destroying birds of prey; and as it is the ‘early bird that catches the worm.’ I would suggest to members of your valuable association, through their secretary, that they meet at an early hour, say half-past five in the morning, either at Dodson’s store or at the well-known grocery stand of John L. King, and proceed in a body, in full uniform, to the premises alluded to in your correspondence. It might be well to have music, and march to the tune of ‘Listen to the Mockingbird,’ or such other appropriate music as your orchestra may select. “One other suggestion: I am constitutionally and proverbially careless in the handling of firearms, and it may be well to make that statement to the members of your organization, so that should a stray shot fall wide of the mark at which it was aimed, they may feel a sense of security behind such intrenchments as nature or art shall have provided. Ice-water and sponges will be furnished free to each and every member who attends, but no gin cocktails will be given. “Very truly yours, H----.”