90 What Birds Have Done With Me 



had fought for her life, and on the other hand 

 you can imagine Bildad going to sleep with his 

 head resting across a chopping block. If that 

 old story has any foundation in fact, it is my 

 belief that it was a Wild Goose that saved Rome. 



It is impossible to go into all her little ways 

 through which she captivated my imagination, but 

 take her for all in all, she was one of my most 

 interesting patients from the wild. Here was 

 the omnipresent speculation with regard to her: 

 when fall came with countless numbers of her 

 migrating kind, would her instinct be too strong 

 for her local attachment? Vain speculation; the 

 question never was settled. At dawn on the first 

 day of "the open season," when our vanishing 

 wild life may be slaughtered according to law, a 

 drunken young hoodlum, from a neighboring 

 town, shot Canada on the beach in front of the 

 hotel. It was one of those little occurrences to 

 be met with in life, when expression is apt to be 

 of a character that would make its publication 

 more or less of an indiscretion. 



During all the days of her brief sojourn with 

 us, Canada had never uttered a sound and for a 

 long time this very fact associated her with all 

 silent places. In the spring when we watched 

 the flocks going north, when they finally melted 

 into space and their last sound became inaudible, 



