JOTHAM STORIES 211 



bird fly away. When he got home a half-hour 

 later he found his pantry window broken and a 

 partridge lying dead on the pantry floor, either 

 the one he had shot at or another just as good 

 and as the proverb has it, one story is good until 

 another one is told. Jotham usually caps his list 

 with the following : 



"I guess the greatest wild goose hunting 

 grandfather ever did was the time the big flock 

 got caught in the ice storm. It came in Novem- 

 ber, a foot of soft snow and then one of those 

 rainstorms that freeze as soon as the rain touches 

 anything. Every twig on the trees that storm 

 was as big as your wrist with ice and there was 

 an inch or two of clear ice on everything and 

 more coming all the time, when grandfather 

 heard a big flock of wild geese honking. They 

 didn't seem to be going over, but their voices 

 hung in the air right over the big steep hill from 

 the barn up into the back pasture. After they'd 

 been honking up there for some time grandfather 

 went up to see what it was all about, but he didn't 

 take his gun. As he climbed the hill through the 

 wet snow he heard 'em plainer and plainer, and 

 when he got to the top he saw a most 'strodinary 

 sight. There was a good-sized flock, ninety- 



