The Fieldfare 



CHAPTER XXVII 



Wild Wings: a Farewell 



My anxious interest in the swallows did not keep me 

 from seeing and hearing the geese. They had arrived 

 as usual "in their thousands"; the wild-fowlers said 

 they had never seen them in greater numbers than this 

 autumn. One reason for this was supposed to be the 

 unusual abundance of food on the farmlands, where a 

 great deal of the corn had remained on the ground 

 on account of the floods in August and September. 

 The farmer's loss was pure gain to the wild geese. The 

 birds shot during my stay were fat and their crops full 

 of corn; certainly they appeared happy; and when they 

 par.sed over the town with resounding cackle and 

 scream one could imagine they were laughing in the 



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