The Winslow mail., 1898-04-30
TOMS WILD GOOSE,
BY S. ROLAND HALL.
THERE is doubtless a period in the
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existence of every boy born and
raised in the country when the pros
pect of a trip to the city or the entire
ownership of a new gun is the opening
of new life of genuine, ideal happi=
ness.
Thomas Stephen Prosser, aged 12
years and nine months, was just such a
boy at just such period.
Thomas was the only son Of kind, in
dulgent parents, and, by strict compli-
ance with certain rules, he had been
permitted to "gun" by himself for a
year or more, on the large river farm
owned by Mr.. Prosser.
His weapon was an antiquated speci-
men of a musket, that had seen good
service in the civil strife of the sixties,
with a barrel so long that Tom had to
lean the old arm in order to ram the
powder effectively. Nevertheless, the
old piece was true shot, and Tommy
had often brought in more game than
his Cousin Joe, who lived on the adjotn-
ing farm and owned pretty, double
barreled breechJloader, which his fa-
ther had given him on his sixteenth
".
with other boys, Tom had proven the
superiority of the old muzzle-loader
over modern firearms, in long-range
shooting.
Tom loved dearly to hunt, yet the old
musket was so heavy and clumsy, that
he got to be a little ashamed to be seen
carrying it, especially after he had
learned to shoot well for a boy of his
age.
He grew more and more dissatisfied
with it when he saw the neat guns that
some of the larger boys had, with their
pretty, vanished stocks and bright bar
rels, longing for one himself
He had two fond ambitions-one was
to save money enough to buy himself
breech-loading gun, and the other was
to shoot wild goose.
His fathers farm bordered on a large
saltwater river, and every fall and win
ter large focIs of wild geese would
come up in the lower field and feed on
the green wheat, much to the injury of
the crop, but generally with a fair de-
gree of safety to themselves.
Those who have hunted wild geese
know how sagacious and alert they are.
When a flock alights In field, they in-
variably pitch near the center, and
there is always one old fellow who never
puts down his head to feed. He is
known as the sentinel, or watch
goose" and it is said by sportsmen that
he is always very poor and thin when
killed.
Tom used to heap much abuse upon
the head of the watch goose, when, after
crawling and creeping in mud and
water down the side of a long fence, the
old fellow would give his warning
"honk," and the flock would speed away
to safety.
Tom would rise wrathfully from his
creeping position and shake his fist saw
agely at the fast-disappearing flock, but
il availed nothing, and Tom would have
to shoulder his gun and go back home
gooseless,
Morning after morning, in the late
fall, when geese began to be plentiful,
Tom would get up very early, with won
derful persistence for small boy, and
90 down to the river field; but though
he got several long range shots, he had
never been strategetic enough to ap-
proach within easy range of the flock
He received much joking at home
about his wild goose chase, and his
mother laughingly remarked, one morn
ing at the breakfast table, that she
would undertake to eat Toms wild
goose uncooked, feet, feathers and all,
when he killed it!
''Well," said Mr.. Prosser, "I'm almost
afraid to promise to help in that task,
but I'll tell you what I'll do, my boy,
If you shoot the goose between now and
your birthday, I'll make you birthday
present of a nice new breech-lcadlng
/ gun, like the one you have been wishing
for so much. But, he added, Il don't
want you to neglect any of your home
duties, in hunting"
"All right" said Tom, with jump
that made the dishes rattle; and he con-
tinued, with beaming face, I'm much
: obliged to you, father, and I think you
had better order the gun right soon,
tool"
/ every well, Thomas" replied his IA
ther, cheerily; "don't fear but that the
! gun will be forthcoming when ms
gooseship appears"
The next day Tom confded to his
sister Matte brilliant project he had
conceived of setting bait of corn and
wheat grain, so tempting that the watch
! goose could not resist the temptation to
eat, while Tom crept down upon the
flock unawares.
The plan didn't work just so well as
Tom had expected, but the geese ate
all of the bait and set Toms fertile
mind to thinking.
Evening after evening he placed the
bait in the field, each time moving 1t
little closer to the north end of the field
where there was ditch leading from
the woods down by the side of fence.
Morning after morning the bait dlsap-
peared.
One foggy morning, about week or
two after he first commenced TO Dalt
Tom rose early and went down to the
woods at the end of the ditch. Day was
just breaking, but it was too-dark 10 tel
whether the geese were in the 1leld o.
not. Besides, damp, chilly 1og lay
close to the ground all along the bank
OF the river making it impossible TO as
Germ objects on the ground further thaH
a yard or two away. s-s-.------- -----