GEESE 



surprised the oldest inhabitants. That night 

 the wind whipped into the south, drove all the 

 water off the bars, then fell away to a calm, 

 and the temperature became oppressive. The 

 wild fowl reassembled in great rafts where we 

 could not get at them; we lay in our batteries, 

 panting like lizards and moaning for iced lem- 

 onade, while the skin on our noses curled up 

 like dried paint. The only birds we got were 

 poor half-witted things, delirious with the heat. 



Such conditions could not last the guides 

 assured us of that and they didn't. The 

 next day it rained, and a battery in rainy 

 weather is about as dry as a goldfish globe. 

 Now, a strong man with an iron will may 

 school himself to lie motionless while he slowly 

 perishes from cold, for after the first few 

 agonizing hours there is comparatively little 

 discomfort to death by freezing, but I defy 

 anybody to drown without a struggle. 



But why drag out the painful details? We 

 had not interred our jinx. One day a hurri- 

 cane blew out of the north and piled the angry 

 waters in upon us, the next it shifted, ran the 

 tides out, and left us as dry as a lime burner's 

 boot; the third it rained or fogged or turned 

 glassy calm. Grizzled old veterans from the 



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