GOOSE SHOOTING. 269 



they are, and George stirs up the decoys. Old One 

 Wing hears the call and straightens out for work. 

 Soon the whole point is in one grand roar. The wild 

 geese swing over us, and we can just make out the line 

 of black rushing through the air. They wheel out over 

 the lake, honk a few times, and we hear them no more. 

 In a little while, as we look up the lake, we see a flash, 

 then three or four, and then come the reports of the 

 guns. Men at a stand on the east side of the lake have 

 shot, and now the air is full of geese. We try to stop 

 some of them, but it is of no use ; so this ends the fun 

 for the presents 



It is now about 12 o'clock. Add, Tom, Herb and I 

 are in the stand. George has turned in, having been up 

 two nights. There is a light ripple on the water. The 

 moon shines brightly, and we are saying that it is an 

 ideal night for birds, when Herb says, "What is that 

 just inside the blocks ?" Tom looks with glasses, and 

 says, "Ducks; about fifteen." They come nearer and are 

 almost near enough to shoot, when there comes, honk, 

 honk, honk right over us. There are fourteen geese, 

 with wings crooked, scaling to our decoys. Have you 

 ever seen them ? and didn't your blood tingle ? Some- 

 thing startles them, and they whirl to the north, going 

 toward the place where the other shot was fired. 



As the boys had been up nearly all of two nights, I 

 offered to stand watch to-night. As I stood there look- 

 ing at the water, it came to me why this place was called 

 Silver Lake. The moon shining on the water, which 

 was stirred to a little ripple by the breeze, made it seem 



