JOTHAM STORIES 209 



He simply left his ramrod right in the gun, put on 

 a cap, and began to worm his way through the 

 cedars to the shore, where he could get a good, 

 close shot at the geese. Just as he did this an- 

 other hunter who was no kind of a shot, came to 

 the other side of the pond and saw the birds. 

 He was one of the kind that have the buck fever 

 at the sight of game, and he put up his gun and 

 shot slam at the flock, too far away to do any 

 execution, then he let out a yell and began to 

 run down to the shore as fast as he could go. 



"Of course he scared the geese and they lit out, 

 swinging right by grandfather. Grandfather 

 was a nervy hunter. He held his fire till he got 

 the heads of those seven geese right in line, and 

 then he shot and strung 'em all right through the 

 eyes with the ramrod. Granddad couldn't quite 

 see where he had hit 'em, but when the smoke 

 cleared away he saw the seven geese still flying 

 and his ramrod going off with 'em, and he was 

 some considerable astonished and a good deal 

 put about at losing his ramrod. 



"Now here's the queer part of it: Those 

 seven geese were blinded, of course, with a ram- 

 rod strung right through their eyes, but the life 



