52 Hunting Trips of a Ranchman 



the water of the bend. Only a faint streak of light 

 was visible in the east, so that objects on the water 

 could hardly be made out; and the little wreaths of 

 mist that rose from the river made the difficulty 

 even greater. The birds were some distance above 

 me, where the water made a long straight stretch 

 through a sandy level. I could not see them, but 

 could plainly hear their low murmuring and splash- 

 ing, and once one of them, as I judged by the sound, 

 stood up on end and flapped its wings vigorously. 

 Pretty soon a light puff of wind blew the thin mist 

 aside, and I caught a glimpse of them ; as I had sup- 

 posed, they were wild geese, five of them, swimming 

 slowly, or rather resting on the water, and being 

 drifted down with the current. The fog closed over 

 them again, but it was growing light very rapidly, 

 and in a short time I knew they would be in the still 

 water of the bend just below me, so I rose on my 

 elbows and held my rifle ready at the poise. In a 

 few minutes, before the sun was above the horizon, 

 but when there was plenty of light by which to shoot, 

 another eddy in the wind blew away the vapor and 

 showed the five geese in a cluster, some thirty yards 

 off. I fired at once, and one of the geese, kicking 

 and flapping frantically, fell over, its neck half cut 

 from the body, while the others, with laborious ef- 

 fort, got under way. Before they could get their 

 heavy bodies fairly off the water and out of range, 

 I had taken three more shots, but missed. Waiting 

 till the dead goose drifted in to shore, I picked it up 

 and tied it on the saddle of my horse to carry home 



