CHAPTER XXVIII 



AMONG THE WILD GEESE 



A Winter's Day in a Gunning-Punt 



The morning broke with one of those surprises to which 

 in a temperate clime we are more or less accustomed. A 

 sudden and heavy snowfall had occurred during- the 

 night. While men slept, all the familiar features of the 

 landscape had disappeared, buried under the wintry 

 mantle. Moreover, the feathery particles still continued 

 to fall heavily, and with that steady persistency which 

 bodes a "breeding-storm." How differently is such a 

 phenomenon regarded! To the writer it was ever wel- 

 come, as presaging new experiences and, it might be, fresh 

 successes in the wild sports of the coast. The morning's 

 post brought an invitation for a couple of days' covert- 

 shooting to wind up the season (it was the middle of 

 January), but this in the altered condition of things 

 could not now be entertained — such is the fascination that 

 wildfowling inspires. No other sport is so precarious, 

 yet no one who has ever entered into its spirit, or been 

 "bitten" by its enthusiasm, would dream of exchanging 

 the chances of the gunning-punt, with all its risks, 

 hardships, and uncertainties, for the most abundant 

 game-shooting which the season will afford, That after- 



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