AND THE WILDERNESS BLOSSOMED 



and she kept the chore-boy busy all summer 

 driving them away from the neighborhood of the 

 house. She left in the fall vowing vengeance on 

 the race, promising to eat dozens of their relatives 

 during the winter, and declaring that she would 

 never return to the island as long as the Bob 

 White remained. It is a fact beyond dispute 

 that they finally disappeared the very day she 

 returned ; but whether it was an accidental coin- 

 cidence, an answer to prayer, or a pure case of 

 hoodoo, I do not presume to decide. 



Having no flower-beds the first year or 

 two on the island, we had chickens in abun- 

 dance, and they were allowed to roam at will. 

 They chose their nests where they would, 

 and though we had but few eggs, we had no 

 end of broilers in the fall. George Pickens 

 used to catch them, as he wanted them, in a 

 landing-net, but later in the season they got too 

 wild for that, and he appealed for help. The 

 young fellows then used to get target practice 

 shooting them through the head with a twenty- 

 two calibre rifle, which did well at first, but later 

 the chickens moved off out of range the moment 

 a boy appeared with a gun. A larger gun was 

 therefore used; but soon that became of no avail, 



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