CHAPTER II 



WATERFOWL 



ONE cool afternoon in the early fall, 

 while sitting on the veranda of the 

 ranchhouse, 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 

 heavily toward the south, along the course 

 of the stream. They went by within a hun- 

 dred 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 settled, 

 I took the rifle instead of a shot-gun and 

 hurried after them on foot. Wild geese are 



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