As Good as He Gave.

Auckland Star, Volume VI, Issue 1671, 26 June 1875, Page 5 (Supplement)

As Good as He Gave.

j ' Speaking of shooting ducks,' says Dr. F., ' puts me in mind of the great storm that occurred when I lived on the Island. As you are well aware, our island was near Cisco Bay ; an awful storm arose, and was so fierce that it drove all the ducks in the bay into a pond, covering about an acre, near my house. In fact, so many ducks crowded into that pond that I could nob see a drop of watei.' 'Sho/says Smith, ' didn't ye shoot any of 'em?' ' That's what I was coming at. I went into the house and got my double-barrelled shotgun and discharged both barrels right into the midst of them, but, to my astonishment, fhey all arose in the air, leaving not a solitary duck on the pond.' 'Good gracious!' ou don't say so,' says Smith. 'Didn't you have any shot in yer gun, or what in thunder was the matter?' ' Well, I was coming to that,' said Dr. P. ' It astonished me at first, but bb soon as the ducks aros.e a few hundred yards in the air, and commenced to separate a little, ducks began to drop, and whether you believe it or not, I picked up twenty-nine barrels of ducks, and it was a poor season for ducks, too. You see the ducks were wedged in solid on the pond, and when they arose they carried the dead ones in the air with them', and when . they separated, down came the twenty-nine barrels of dead ducks.' • 'Oh,' says Smith, 'I am not surprised at that at all, or at the big lot of ducks you bagged, for it was an awful storm. I remem- ' ber it well, doctor ; I had at tha*; time a cornbarn full of corn ; on the outside was a knot- ] hole ; and during the storm the wind blew so fierce that it blew every ear of that corn right through the knot-hole ; and the hole being just the siye of a cob the imp was that it < shelled every ear, leaving the corn in the barn, and the next merning I found my corn- ; barn half full of shelled corn, and not a single cob. I had a curiosity to know where the * cobs had gone to. I went to the rear of the • barn and followed the line of these cobs over ' eleven miles, and at a distance of five miles a • large first-growth pine tree stood in the track, and darn me if the wind didn't drive cobs into the tree from top to bottom. Oh, doctor, that was an awful storm.' i

' Yes,' sighed the doctor,' awful.'