The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1909-07-31
THE BOY AND THE BIRD.

A writer in AbPLet0n'S magazine
gives an experience which boy had
after wounding grouse. We give
the article in part:
"The bird at which the boy had
fired thrust down its legs and wab-
bled as if about to fall then recov-
cred itself and flew on, its legs dang
ling. A chance shot had apparently
broken its back, paralyzing its legs,
but leaving it still strength enough
to fly a certain distance. Trained
hunter as he was, the boy watched
the wounded bird, and marked the
exact spot where it finally dropped,
just at the edge of the cornfeld, half
a mile away.
"'I think I'll go after it, said the
youth.
Nonsense, said Luther, it's a
half mile away, and you have all you
want without it.
/ But the bird is wounded. I hate
to have it lie out there and suffer.
"'Oh it's probably dead or If it
isn't, some skunk or weasel will kill
1t tonight. Come along
ut was nearly sunset, and the
youth was tired after the long tramp
of the day. 1t would be long trip
over to the cornfeld for weary legs
and then perhaps to find the bird
dead. Already it was supper-time at
home, and he had a hunters appe-
tite. So he allowed himself to be
over persuaded, and the two tramped
homeward.
"But the grouse that had fallen
over in the cornfeld was not dead.
Nor, as it CHANGED, was it's wound of
a kind to produce speedy death. The
injury did, however, render the bird
utterly helpless. Once it had drop
ped to the earth it could not rise
again. Nor could it move about on
the ground, for its legs were para
lyzed completely. 1t lay on the bare
earth, sheltered by the cornstalks
from the eyes Of hawks, and where
there was not much danger that ma
rauding beast would find it. But
there was no food at hand. It was
doubtful even whether the bird would
be able to sip few drops of dew
from cornstalk to quench the thirst
that its wound must develop.
"Quite obviously fate had marked
the grouse for lingering death of
torture. Its wound, already painful,
must become more so with the lapse
of time. Insects would come in pha-
lanxes to poster it. Hunger and
thirst would add their modicum of
agony. The greatest mercy it could
hope for would be the coming of
some skunk or weasel, as the hunter
had suggested, to put 1t out of misery.
But no such messenger Of speedy
death chanced to come that way"
The following Sunday morning
the boy went to church. The writer
says:
"The youths soul was undergoing
development in that half hour. He
was making one of those short cuts
from point of view to point of view.
He was passing (little as he realized
IT'D from the barbarian hunter stage
to plane of broader sympathies.
"All through the lesson he sat
brooding the same thoughts, and as
he left the church the idea of the
wounded bird had taken full possession
of his mind. Instead of going home,
he set out for the field where be had
shot the grouse. He believed he
might find the bird even yet. At
least he would try.
"A good memory and keen eye
enabled him to go to about the point
of the field from which the grouse
had flushed; and over by the corn
field he noted the exact point (mark-
ed by peculiar fence post) where
the wounded bird had gone down.
He went directly to it, and had
scarcely entered the corrfeld when
his dog came to point. There
| ahead on the ground lay the bird,
stretched at full length. 1t made no
effort to escape as he came up. 1t
was too near death to fear him or
anything, its eyes half chosed, its bill
agape, as it feebly gasped for breath.
'In an instant the youth was on
his knees beside the bird, a great
lump in his throat, his eyes staring
as if they would start from their sock
cts. The meaning of it all came to
him, with the force of a blow. Me-
chanically he brushed away the in
sects that gathered about the wound
in the birds back. He stroked the
soiled plumage tenderly. He found
himself calculating the hours that the
grouse had lain there suffering. 1t
had happened Wednesday and this
was Sunday-twenty-four seventy
two, about ninety hours; yes, fully
ninety. What cruel stretch of tor
ture The youth recalled an occasion
when he had had toothache for two
hours that had seemed interminable !;
and the meaning of that ninety hours
of pain came home to him yet more
vividly. In an agony of remorse he
knelt there, thinking. He closed his
eyes; and when he opened them a
few minutes later, the grouse had
ceased to breathe.
"The youth rose suddenly and
walked to the verge of the cornfeld.
He selected spot in fence corner,
and began to dig hole. The ground
was hard, and he had nothing but his
knife and piece of stick to aid him ;
but he persevered the more stubbornly
as his fingers became sore from dig
ging. When the grave was deep
enough, the youth went after the
body of the grouse and took it up
very tenderly, as if so much of suffer
ing had given 1t sacredness. He laid
the poor thing carefully in the ground,
smoothing its every feather. Then
he resolutely scooped in the dirt till
the grave was filled.
"It was thoughtful youth who
walked slowly homeward across the
| Al. Ioxv IIa acH-