HONK, HONK, HONK! 



99 



any of our parents have heard. But the honk 

 ;he wild geese going over we should all hear, 

 our children should hear ; for this fl6ck of wild ere* 

 ures we have in our hands to preserve. 



The wild geese breed in the low, wet marshes of 

 ..the half-frozen North, where, for a thousand years 

 ^ to come they will not interfere with the needs of 

 (man. They pass over our northern and middle states 

 ^and spend the winter in the rivers, marshes, and, 

 r -lagoons of the South, where, for another thousand 

 s years to come, they can do little, if any, harm to 

 inan, but rather good. 



But North and South, and all along their journey, 

 back and forth, they are shot for sport and food.^ 

 For the wild geese cannot make this thousand-mile I, 

 flight without coming down to rest and eat ; and 

 wherever that descent is made, there is pretty sure \T 

 ~^to be a man with a gun on the watch. 



Here, close to my home, are four ponds; and 

 around the sides of each of them are "goose blinds" 

 screens made of cedar and pine boughs fixed into 

 < ihe shore, behind which the gunners lie in wait. f^ f 

 C More than that, out upon the surface of the pond \ 

 are geese swimming, but tied so that they cannot J 

 escape geese that have been raised in captivity ; 

 and placed there to lure the flying wild flocks down. / y"" 

 Others, known as "flyers," are kept within the blind - ^\ 

 to be let loose when a big flock is seen approaching / J 

 to fly out and mingle with them and decoy themf 



