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to answer for itself. This time it was in the shape of 

 a woman, evidently Bo-peep's mother, accompanied 

 by the rider of the black horse. The girl had ridden 

 home, told her mother we had threatened to shoot 

 her, and now the old lady was here with the martial 

 fires of her fatherland burning fiercely within her and 

 sending her blood up to the boiling point. When she 

 got within shouting distance she opened her batteries. 

 She would listen to neither explanation nor defense 

 and actually charged us with having frightened her 

 sheep away by having a retriever with us ; and then 

 she vowed vengeance. We entreated, implored her to 

 leave us, to go away anywhere, so the geese wouldn't 

 see her ; that after they had passed she might come 

 back again and we would try to accommodate her with 

 all the vengeance she wanted. But no, there she 

 stood, working her jaws and hurling her brimstone at 

 us, and waving her arms that flew around her head 

 like the sails of a windmill. 



The geese passed over and away out of range and 

 sight. Then her arms resumed their equilibrium, and 

 with a few more hot words and a farewell shake of 

 her fist she turned and slowly disappeared over a 

 knoll. And we ? Well, we got out of our pits and 

 with spade and shovel silently filled them up again ; 

 then, hardly daring to trust ourselves to speak, we got 

 into the wagon and drove to the train, for this was 

 our last hunt for the season. 



