CHAPTER II. 



WATERFOWL, 



NE cool afternoon in the 

 early fall, while sitting on 

 the veranda of the ranch^ 

 house, we heard a long way 

 off the ha-ha-honk, ha-honk, of a 

 gang of wild geese ; and shortly 

 afterward they came in sight, in 

 a V-shaped line, flying low and 

 write heavily toward the south, 



"i]i r n//j 



along the course of the stream. They went by within 

 a hundred yards of the house, and we watched them 

 for some minutes as they flew up the valley, for they 

 were so low in the air that it seemed certain that 

 they would soon alight ; and light they did when 

 they were less than a mile past us. As the ground 

 was flat and without much cover where they had set- 

 tled, I took the rifle instead of a shot-gun and hurried 

 after them on foot. W T ild geese are very watchful and 

 wary, and as I came toward the place where I thought 



43 



