A Basket of Chips: An Autobiography

Basket of Chips, page 056

A Baket of Chips he had had enough of it and would strike off for home leaving me to follow on foot. I had one experience that resulted in a great surprise to me. A flock of sand-hill cranes were feeding in a large field and the horse and I made our careful drive toward them. They were the first he had seen, and, horse-like, his curiosity was aroused and he began trotting toward them when we were about ninety yards away. That was more than they would stand, and raised their huge wings to depart. So I let them have it from where I was and broke the wing of one. I was so excited that I laid down the gun and rushed up to my prize, but at about ten yards from him I made a sudden stop, for with his huge spike of a beak open, and long legs, he came at me with such speed that I threw my gears into reverse so rapidly that it is a wonder the cogs were not stripped. My next thought was to give him an- other charge from my gun, but there was a flock of geese near that I wanted a chance at. So I cut some short lengths of willow and attacked him with these at a safe distance, and at about the third throw caught him on his long neck at the base of his skull and head, and over he went and I had him. When I was ready to go, the wild geese had taken alarm. With gun and game I approached the horse, but he said "noth- ing doing," and I had to argue the point for a while before he would let me strap the prize on his back. There was much re- joicing when I got home, as it meant a fine meal for us. Small birds no longer graced our table. It was largely of game such as wild ducks, or geese, snipes and rabbits, etc. Before I was old enough to use the gun I would sit at my grandfather's knee and listen to his stories of hunting and fish- ing. As regular as the clock, he made the Sunday afternoon call and sat the afternoon at our fireside in the winter, or on the back porch in summer. With my mother he would talk of my grandmother whom I had never seen. Like myself he lost her at the period of his life when his children were well along in childhood. She died in England. Had that not happened he