Spruce grouse chickens, full grown now, rise in coveys with much noise
of wing, and perch in trees looking down unafraid upon any who intrude
upon their forest home. Ptarmigans, still in their coat of mottled
brown and white, gather in flocks upon the naked hills to feed, where
upland cranberries cover the ground in red masses; or on the edge of
marshes where bake apple berries have changed from brilliant red to
delicate salmon pink and offer a sweet and wholesome feast.

The honk and quack of wild geese and ducks, southward bound in great
flocks, disturbs the silence of every inlet and cove and bight, where
the wild fowl pause for a time to rest and feed upon the grasses.

After Thomas's departure Doctor Joe and the boys tidied and snugged
things up for the winter, and many a fine hunt they had, mornings and
evenings, in the edge of a near-by marsh through which a brook coursed
to join the sea. Hunting geese and ducks was indeed a duty, for they
must needs depend upon the hunt for no small share of their living. It
was a duty they enjoyed, however. Skill and a steady hand and a quick
eye are necessary to success, and they never failed to return with a
full bag.

The weather was now cold enough to keep the birds sweet and fresh, and
before September closed a full two score of fine fat geese were
hanging in the enclosed lean-to shed with a promise of many good
dinners in the future.

Between the hunting and the work about home there was no time to be
dawdled vainly away. When there was nothing more pressing the
wood-pile always stood suggestively near the door inviting attention,