358 MEN I HAVE FISHED WITH. 



his Queen Anne musket, and rammed down a peach-pit 

 on top of the powder and shot at a deer, but thought he 

 missed. Three years later he saw a commotion in the 

 bushes, and fired into it and killed a big buck which had 

 a peach tree growing out of his back ; and the hunter not 

 only got a great lot of venison, but took home three 

 bushels of peaches." 



Tobi Teller said: "I rise to a question of privilege. 

 This story of the deer and the peaches appears in the 

 sagas of the Norsemen, and is coeval with the sun myths, 

 with the story of the man who cut off the dog's tail, ate 

 the meat and gave the dog the bone. It is just as good, 

 however, as the day it was told by the lamented Baron 

 Munchausen, and I would be the last man to take a shav- 

 ing off it. But, as every man must contribute his mite 

 of unwritten history, I will ask General Martin Miller to 

 tell our guest what has happened in Greenbush since he 

 left us to seek fame and fortune in the wild West half a 

 dozen years ago." 



MAT MILLER'S STORY. 



The General looked the party over as he arose and 

 said: "In this quiet village there is little change from 

 year to year, and the only thing which I can recall that 

 might interest you is the stealing of Mrs. Parsons' geese. 

 You all know that this old lady, who lived down on 

 Columbia street, raised great numbers of geese, and de- 

 rived quite a revenue from the sale of feathers and 

 dressed birds. A neighbor, on a back street, used to help 

 dress these fowls; his name was Gordonier; you all knew 

 him, and he stuttered awfully. When he was drunk he 

 didn't stutter, and so we knew just what his spiritual 

 condition was. When there was a revival in the church 



