GEESE 



Now, mail is bad enough on a hunting 

 trip, but telegrams are unbearable, and I 

 distrust them. Nobody ever wanted me to 

 stay away and enjoy myself so urgently as to 

 wire me; therefore I openly resented this 

 man and his mission. By the time he had 

 handed me the message I had made up my 

 mind to ignore it, reasoning rapidly that it 

 could by no possibility be of importance, and 

 if it were as it probably was I could do 

 nothing about it before the mail boat came 

 that night. Hence it was futile to permit 

 my attention to be distracted from the im- 

 portant business of the moment. 



I thanked the man, then urged him, for 

 Heaven's sake, to beat it quickly, for, in the 

 offing, flocks of geese were noisily demanding 

 a chance to sit down with my decoys, and just 

 out of range ducks were flying about, first on 

 one wing then on the other, waiting for him 

 to be gone. 



But that telegram exercised an uncanny 

 fascination for me. I lacked the moral cour- 

 age to destroy it, although I knew full well if 

 I kept it on my person I would read it and 

 regret so doing. Things worked out just as I 

 had expected. I yielded and my worst ap- 



35 



