84 What Birds Have Done With Me 



for a gun; a respectable minority admired its 

 grace and alertness and one man among them all, 

 and as it happened the host, determined to cap- 

 ture it, mend its broken wing, and in the fall 

 migration, allow it, if it so willed, to go south 

 among its fellows. 



No trick, you doubtless fancy, for two stalwart 

 young men in a boat with a good landing net, 

 with a handle six feet long, to pick it up from 

 the water. If you have been entertaining such a 

 notion of the silliness of a Goose it would have 

 been a surprising experience to have been one 

 of the company on as astonishing a Wild Goose 

 chase as has been pulled off in many a day. After 

 an hour of valiant pursuit and most ignominious 

 failure, a vote was taken whether to continue the 

 trip or the chase; if the first proposition prevailed, 

 each one would have to pocket the mortification 

 of having been bested by a Goose. So we all 

 stood pat and now belong to that respectable 

 minority, who going on a "Wild Goose chase" 

 return with rejoicing, bringing their bird with 

 them. So far the pursuit had been so fast and 

 furious that no one had been taxing his gray 

 matter to any great extent, but the little voting 

 intermission had put us in a judicial frame of 

 mind and we shouted our collective wisdom like 

 a well-drilled class in the A grade: "She doubles 



