Ill 
THE summer with its heat and gnats, its mos- 
quito and bullfrog music, its watermelons 
and fish-fry picnics, wore on until the bobolinks 
came. Now when these birds come to Cow 
Heaven plantation everyone has all he can do 
until they pass on. They come in flocks of 
many thousands and settle in the rice-fields all 
over the low grounds. They are so very fond 
of the rice grains when these begin to ripen that, 
if not driven away, they will entirely destroy 
the rice in the fields. So all the men and boys 
turn out with guns, and the overseer stations 
them at various places about the fields. From 
early morning until night Jim Crow could hear 
the guns booming away as the great flocks of 
birds were kept moving from one field to another. 
The bobolinks were very fat, and everyone 
had all the birds he could eat. Yet so many — 
were killed that for every one eaten, at least a 
hundred were left on the ground. The owl and 
raccoon were given bobolinks until they grew 
weary of them and would eat no more. The 
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