132 “COME DUCK SHOOTING WITH ME” 
‘Oh, no,’’ said Jimmy. ‘‘The story was nothing like 
that. Johnson madea great big long story of it, but the 
gist of it went this way—A fellow got married and in 
ten years had a family of five children. I couldn’t see 
anything out of the way in the story so far, it’s often 
like that out here in Utah,’’ remarked Jimmy. ‘Then 
Johnson said the wife had a kodak and was fond of tak- 
ing photographs and when each child was two years old 
she would take a picture of it with the child’s favorite 
toy in its arms. The first child held a teddy bear, the 
second a doll, and so on; the fifth child held a raven— 
and then Fat Johnson let out a roar of laughter that 
scared up every duck for a mile around. Of course, I 
laughed too although I couldn’t see any point, but then 
us guides always has to be pleasant. You know I have 
even tried once or twice to interest you.”’ 
‘‘What’s that,”’ I cried, ‘“‘interest me?”’ 
‘Oh, well,’’ said Jimmy, “‘let it go. That night at 
dinner in the guides’ house I told them the story, and 
when I came to the end I began to laugh like everything. 
All the guides did was what they always do, when they 
hear a story that has no point toit, just put their knives 
and forks down on their plates, and all glared at me. 
Finally, Jack the head guide said, ‘Jimmy, what's the 
matter with you? you’re making more noise than you do 
when eating soup. There’s no point to that tale you 
just bailed out. Suppose the child wanted to hold a 
raven, a canvasback-duck, or a turkey buzzard in its 
arms, what difference would it make?’ Well, I didn’t 
know and all that evening the guides made fun of me. 
Finally one said, ‘They don’t have ravens in these 
United States of America, Jimmy. What part of the 
world was Fat Johnson talking about?’ Of course, | 
didn’t know. They just plagued the life out of me. 
