GEESE 



show had begun; so I reread my wife's last 

 letter, and, finding it only moderately cool, I 

 took the bit in my teeth and declared it my 

 intention to stick long enough to change de- 

 feat into victory, even if I had to sleep in the 

 woodshed when I got home. 



" Better stay on for a few days," I urged the 

 boys. "It will be dangerous to sit up in a 

 battery to-morrow; the birds will knock your 

 hats off. A blind man could kill his limit in 

 this weather." 



I had not read their mail, but I understood 

 when they choked up and spoke tearfully 

 about "business." While I pitied them sin- 

 cerely, a fierce joy surged through my own 

 veins; nothing now could hinder me from 

 enjoying a few days of fast, furious shooting. 

 The birds were pouring out of Currituck; 

 there would be redheads, canvasbacks, teal 

 every kind of duck. 



As we tried to work the house boat into the 

 lagoon at Ocracoke, where we could get her 

 out on the ways and count the fish remaining 

 in that fragment of net, an Arctic tornado hit 

 us and blew us up high and dry on a rock pile. 

 It was a frightful position we now found our- 

 selves in, for we had such a list to port that the 



33 



