Tbe Witchery of Wa-Wa 15 



raft of dry weeds, he sat down and waited. The 

 good old pipe kept him content, and he listened to 

 the voices of feathered folk. Ducks of several sorts 

 kept streaming over, heading for distant corn-fields. 

 Then a rasping scaipe! scaipe ! caused him to nod 

 his head knowingly. At last a flash of yellow light 

 gleamed across the level, and black shadows trailed 

 westward from every slight projection. Presently 

 a distant honking, a clamor of many voices, be- 

 trayed the fact that geese had taken wing. 



He twisted an old corn-tassel into the cross-strings 

 of his cap, tossed a few weeds over the gun-barrels, 

 then laid down and stayed down. He was dressed 

 right and he knew it, so with chin upon hand he 

 lay, his eyes, shadowed by the visor, fixed upon the 

 western sky. Soon a black thread drifted into view 

 and at the first glimpse of it his head sank lower, 

 but his heart beat higher. On and on came the 

 thread, changing to a cord, then to a cable, lastly to 

 a row of big black beads. 



" Hunk get hunk hunk aw hunk! " he 

 sung out, then snickered to himself. The brazen 

 rasp of it was startlingly correct, and a confident 

 repetition of it caused the flock to head directly for 

 him. Not another sound did he utter, but he lay 

 face down like a dead man, although muscles 

 twitched and his heart thumped audibly. At last, 

 from almost overhead, sounded a suspicious croak and 

 the wiff-wiff of mighty pinions. In an instant he 

 was upon his knees, and the new gun fairly leaped 

 to his shoulder. 



As he rose, a long line of geese wavered, parted, 

 and the two sections fell away to either side. In 



