Volume XV* 



RECREATION 



OCTOBER, J90J. 

 G. 0. SHIELDS (COQUINA), Editor and Manager. 



Number 4 



A DOUBLE SHOT AND A SINGLE GOOSE. 



L. T. M KIM. 



"Hello, old man! hello!" The 

 words sounded far away, but they af- 

 fected me strangely. The music 

 stopped ; the lights went out ; my 

 beautiful partner faded mysteriously 

 from my grasp, and the ballroom be- 

 came a bedroom. Then I remem- 

 bered this was the morning on which 

 Dr. Whitesides and I were to go 

 goose shooting. I was out of bed in 

 a moment, and at once put on my 

 hat and coat. Then I took them off 

 again, to give some of my other 

 clothes a chance. 



Downstairs the doctor was talking 

 wildly to himself of pits, flights and 

 decoys, and was bestowing an emer- 

 gency breakfast in a thoroughly Can- 

 adian manner. I followed his ex- 

 ample, and in a moment the horse was 

 at the door. We hastily put into the 

 buggy the 2 12 -bore shot guns, sev- 

 eral boxes of cartridges and a large 

 number of painted sheet iron geese 

 with wooden legs ; and I noticed a 

 faint streak of morning in the East. 



Then we went whirling through 

 the deserted streets like mad. All at 

 once another rig overtook us and an 

 immense voice bellowed, 



"Is that Dr. Whitesides?" 



With strange words the doctor 

 pulled up his horse. 



"Fred James' little boy Jim has 

 been took dreadful bad with croup, 

 Doc," said the stranger. "We'll have 

 to git back pretty smart or he'll be a 

 gonner." 



What the doctor thought \ do not 

 know and \ should not tell you if I 

 did, but he said to me, 



"You see that light over there?" 

 pointing to a low shack ; "Go there to 

 old Jock Anderson and get him to go 

 with you. He knows more about 

 geese than any other man I know of. 

 I must look after this little fellow." 



He left me and I drove to the build- 

 ing indicated and knocked loudly at 

 the door. After a few seconds it 

 opened and an old man, quite the 

 worse for lack of clothes, thrust his 

 head outside. 



"Mr. Anderson, will you go goose 

 hunting with me ? Doctor " 



"Bang," went the door, and I was 

 about to go away, thinking I must 

 have insulted the old sportsman, when 

 he reappeared, fully dressed and car- 

 rying a firearm the antiquity of 

 which would have made it valuable 

 to a collector of relics. He sprang 

 into the rig like a boy, and, taking 

 charge of the driving, directed our 

 steed toward the country. 



"We haven't time to go fur," he 

 said, looking anxiously toward the 

 East, which was beginning to show 

 streaks of red. 



In a few minutes we arrived at a 

 small sod stable, where my compan- 

 ion put the horse. Then taking part 

 of the decoys and some cartridges 

 he made off into a stubble field. I fol- 

 lowed as fast as I could with the rest, 

 finding it no easy matter to keep up 

 with the eager old man, who covered 

 the ground at an astonishing rate. 

 After a few minutes of brisk walking, 

 or running on my part, we reached a 

 place that suited my conductor and 

 he threw down his geese. Then for 



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