go4 
“Let me at ’em,” plunged out of the 
vehicle, and proceeded to make the at- 
tempt. Now the captain was a man of 
imposing stature, so was compelled to 
crawl ‘‘sinuous and snakelike” for over 
eighty yards. At last he got within thirty 
yards of the unsuspecting flock, and then, 
like the good sportsman he was, scorning 
to shoot them sitting, he rose majestically 
from the long grass, remarking as he did 
so, ““Shoo-o! ye divils.”’ 
The geese rose instantly in clamorous 
masses. The captain took deadly aim. 
Snap went the lock of the right barrel. 
An imperceptible pause. Then snap went 
the lock of the left one. No discharge had 
followed the pulling of either trigger. 
The geese faded rapidly away. It seems 
the captain in getting into the cart to drive 
home had (as every careful sportsman 
invariably does) taken the cartridges out 
of his gun; and with the impetuosity of 
his nation, and in the hurry of the moment, 
had quite forgotten to put them back when 
he started on his wild goose chase. It is 
said that the superstitious driver for a time 
declined to let the captain into the cart 
when he came back, on the ground that the 
objurgatory remarks which flowed in an 
uninterrupted stream from the discomfited 
warrior’s lips might “‘bring down a jedge- 
mem? on en. 
Another painful case of mishap while 
RECREATION 
pursuing these wary fowl came under my 
own observation. An enthusiastic but un- 
practiced sportsman, the very first time 
he ever engaged in the gentle pastime of 
wild goose hunting, mortally wounded one, 
which fell on the other side of a deep and 
muddy morass bounded by a fringe of 
swampy forest. The newly made sports- 
man waded through the swamp, and 
struggled through the forest, just in time 
to see his goose carried off by a stalwart 
and facetious farmer, who in reply to his 
agonized appeals and imprecations merely 
requested him to “go and soak himself,” 
a proceeding which his passage through 
the swamp had rendered quite super- 
fluous. But I will not dwell on such 
painful incidents. Shooting the wild goose is 
a hardy and fascinating sport which calls for 
both endurance and intelligence, and which 
should, therefore, be a favorite with Ameri- 
can sportsmen. And I can only add, by 
way of epilogue, that the hints and sug- 
gestions in this article are the fruits of 
experience, which, if we may believe Mr. 
Herbert Spencer, is the only form of 
knowledge worth having. So I say to you 
who have persisted thus far in the search 
for wild goose lore, ‘‘Go you and be a 
goose-hunter—you shall then learn some- 
thing worth the while, if it be only how 
much wiser than you could have otherwise 
possibly believed is ‘‘a silly goose.” 

