38 “COME DUCK SHOOTING WITH ME” 
a mad splurge with both wings. I saw both bottles pop 
out of the mud and with one more leap my goose was 
under full headway with a bottle of beer swinging from 
each leg. I grabbed my gun and fired both barrels at 
once. The goose was rising, I was rattled, and I under- 
shot him—missed the whole shebang, goose, bottles, 
and all. I expect somewhere down in Texas some 
hunter’ll get the surprise of his life when he brings down 
a big Canada goose with a bottle of beer tied to each 
leg.’ He looks me in the eye with that innocent way of 
his and says, ‘Kinder hard luck, wasn’t it?’ 
‘“““Never heard of anything like it in all my life,’ I 
tells him, giving him back the same kind of a look. 
Then after emptying my water bottle I takes up the 
oars kind of tired-like for the trip back. 
‘“We didn’t say much going home. But as we got in 
close to the shack and could smell the beefsteak frying, 
the ducks a-roasting, and the coffee boiling—especially 
the coffee, I began to smell a rat. 
‘“Turning round to Blue Eyes,—I was rowing stroke 
—TI said, ‘How much foundation was there under that 
goose story of yours?’ And Blue Eyes threw a grin 
back at me and says, ‘Just as much as there was under 
your frog story.’”’ 
Jimmy was so in earnest that I had to laugh. “‘So 
you lost your beer after all?”’ I said. 
‘‘Not on your life,’’ answered Jimmy, “‘you cannot 
lose a thing you never had. But what do you think of 
my being promised the beer and then not getting it?”’ 
‘“‘Oh, I don’t think Blue Eyes intended that exactly. 
Didn’t he give you a bottle the next day?”’ I asked. 
‘“‘Yes,”’ said Jimmy, ‘‘that’s just what he did do, but 
even then it did not make up for my disappointment 
the day before.”’ 
