tL. FOLLOW/NG 
'^TH£ DEER 
164 
This was the lesson that the great 
woods whispered sadly when a few 
idle March days found me gliding 
on snowshoes over the old familiar 
ground. Wild geese had honked an 
invitation from the South Shore ; but 
one can never study a wild goose 
there. His whence and whither no 
man knows, and the interesting de- 
tails of his life he hides on the wide 
ocean or the far-off lonely sand flats. 
The only satisfaction is to see him 
swing in on broad wings over the 
decoys — one glorious moment ere 
the gun speaks and the dog jumps, 
and the goose is dead and everything 
is spoiled. So 1 left gun and rifle 
■ - behind, and went off 
