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 Sep- 

 tember. 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 passed over the town with 

 resounding cackle and scream one could imagine they 

 were laughing in the sky : Ha ! ha ! ha ! it is a jolly 

 life in spite of you wingless, wicked wild-fowlers, so 

 long as we remember when flying to and from the sea 

 to keep out of range of your hateful old guns ! They 

 didn't always remember, and a goose was a great prize 

 when one fell to the gun of one of these very poor men ; 

 but when they sent me round a bird just to see what 

 a fine bird old So-and-so had got, and " would I 

 give him half-a-crown for it ? " I could only reply 



295 



