A COCKNEY'S GOOSE.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 220, 17 September 1887, Page 2

A COCKNEY'S GOOSE.

Amongst a collection of anecdotes of" gpoTC and sporting lately published by an English sporting journal occurs the following amusing story : — There are a good many tales about the exploits ot cockney sportsmen, while Mr Winkle's efforts in gunnery have at all times afforded much amusement, to readers of Chronicles of the Pickwick Club. These, as a rule, are tales of sports Imen who, when loading, put the charge of lead in first, or who when they had managed to load all right, could not hit a haystack ; in fact, were much more dangerous to their friends than to the birds they had come out to slaughter. The following, however,*^ a story of a cockney sportsman who really could shoot, being, in short, considered* a dead shot at anything of the game kind, particularly at geese, which he could hit just at the back of the eye if they came within range of his fowling-piece. A few seasons ago, ouv hero, after having, with a congenial friend, spent the day out on the moors with dogs and guns, was homewards bound, when, in the evening twilight, the neck of a goose peering through a fence was descried. " Hush !" whispered the dead shot, as he quietly drew his gun up to take aim. "See if I don't hit him afc the back of the eye," and then blazed away. " What the devil are you shooting at?" said someone behind them. ' ' I'll bo dashed if you haven't been and blown one of the handles off my new plough !" And so he had, safe enough ; but the worst of it was he never heard the Jast of that feat, and the simplo question, "If he hit many birds at the back of the eye now," was sure to evoke from this sportsman a flow of blasphemy.