THE WILD GOOSE. 12$ 



Along the sky the line comes widening out, 

 the mellow Honk deeper and clearer, and you 

 crouch behind the bush, not daring to show your 

 face or move, while fancy pictures the manner of 

 their coming, and sees the birds settle lower 

 toward the earth as they approach. And soon 

 you think you can hear them set their big wings 

 and slide down the air with their long dark necks 

 and white throats almost over you. But not yet, 

 not yet ! Now is the critical time, the time 

 when more shots are thrown away than at any 

 other. For if you rise a moment too soon, you 

 shall see the line turned away and just comfort- 

 ably out of reach. Wait a moment more, and 

 you may hear the tips of broad wing-feathers 

 softly fanning the air above, and feel a stranger 

 depth in the trumpet-tone that stirs a tumult in 

 your blood. And seldom shall you have seen 

 such excitement condensed into so short a space 

 as when you rise to see the air filled with big 

 thumping wings sheering upward and outward 

 amid an uproarious Ho-nk-onk-wonk-onk wonk ; 

 while at the report of your first barrel a whirl of 

 gray strikes the flowery green, and at the report 



