242 RAMBLES AFTER SPORT. 



p'raps yer powder's damp, p'raps yer ' ' 'Taint no 



p'raps about it ; I guess this yere gun ' ' Well wire 



in again ; ' and the gun was carefully loaded with a 

 good charge of shot. Well, Pike gets making new 

 arrangements, &c., and finally gets the widow to allow 

 Joash a rest; and he says to me aside, says he, 'Just 

 cram in all the duchshot yoic can.' I'm darned if I 

 don't think I put a couple of pounds in. ' Now, then,' 

 says Pike, ' bring the gun.' I brings out the gun and 

 hands it to Joash, who was kneeling down behind a log 

 of wood. '^ Kinder hefty, ain't it?' says he. ^Oh, it's 

 all right,' says Pike ; ' now, when I throws this yere 

 piece of biscuit on the water, you fires, mind.' He 

 throws the biscuit about thirty yards ofi", and the geese 

 all comes paddling down to it, Joash aiming away like 

 an artilleryman. ' That's too close, says the widow. 

 ' Noio ! ' says Pike, and bang went the gun. When the 

 smoke cleared away, there was Joash Bunker lying on his 

 back a swearing something awful. Pike a-sitting on a 

 log laughing fit to split his sides, and Widow Hiram 

 a-howling and a-crying and a-cussing away like a good 

 'un. My! howl did laugh!" "And the geese — how 

 many were killed ?" " How many ? Every darned 

 goose was cut to ribbons. WTien young Joash come to 

 and seed what he'd done, ' I knowed that this yere gun 

 was death on geese,' he said, and picks up his birds and 

 walks off, leaving one to Pike and myself; we crossed 

 over the river to a shanty belonging to an old cuss that 

 Pike knew, and had a good supper of it. Widow Hiram 

 don't keep geese now, I reckon." 



After this diverting history and a small quencher we 

 looked after our friends the quail again, and paid some 

 minute attentions to the ground squirrels. These little 



