2IO OLD PLYMOUTH TRAILS 



in a wild goose is powerful strong and they kept 

 flying on just the same, until they went out of 

 sight, right in the direction of granddad's home. 

 But he got home and had hung up his gun with- 

 out seeing anything more of them and he thought 

 his ramrod was sure gone for good. Then 

 grandmother came to him, kind of scared, saying 

 she heard spirit rappings on the pantry wall. 

 Granddad heard the noise, a sort of tapping, but 

 he couldn't see anything until he looked out the 

 pantry window. 



"Yes, there they were seven of 'em, hung on 

 the ramrod and the ramrod hung on a blind-hook, 

 just outside Granddad's pantry window, their 

 wings still flapping a little and making that rap- 

 ping sound, just as if they were knocking to be 

 let in at the pantry of the man that had shot 

 'em. All the relations used to come to grand- 

 father's for Thanksgiving, and thirty-five of 'em 

 sat down to dinner that year and every one of 

 'em had all the roast goose they could eat." 



Frightened or injured game birds do perform 

 strange feats as many an honest huntsman will 

 tell you. I myself have a neighbor, no relative 

 of Jotham's, who shot at a partridge in the woods 

 a qua-rter of a mile from his house and saw the 



