tION by Doris Lessing January 21, 1956
Noypes erms), I can more often t be give me a flock of guinea fory.” From to casual mention of time t smen are oozing envy of ual safari. I keep truto myself.
Not t I seen lions. I ered teresting animals, in to look at time to time. And on my o flouris. I do not care. I never did.
Along otle game goes t t trievably est (against practically everyt all started very, early, to go even furto ly at t attempt, and s becoming for a girl to ride a boy’s bicycle, and stuck out for one of my o tate of t off tely.
In t of table and evasive be is easy to understand ook aim at a small bird sitting on a t bad because t gone to immediately took on its proper colors; to fire at a sitting bird oget in a good oblique s at a bird y yards off, rong elope, iful in our parts but very good to eat— kill one unless arranged an exing crahick bush, preferably in heavy mud.
o me, I said I did not care for it. stick to trut imagine. I did point out t even people like er Jim and Elep Bill used sguns for birds on t it o use a .22 rifle, but my brot moved. I did not expect o be.
After o sc to ook te in ion of term. I spent a ing tting bullets in and taking t. flinc out into t.
t of bus, miles of it in every direction, paradise for sportsmen. I remember clearly first day, I mooned along, t Guinevere and Anne of Green Gables, until a fine kudu bull (fauna of t covetable sort, antelope t ly been scrutinizing me from an antook to its c go. (My broto say, he eye under impossible handicaps.)
Next appeared a duiker, and I put to my sedly but result, since ture o sig.
t follo ter. One day, I ting on a rock in a clearing ted past, follo ty oted my gun and s at eac ly like sing in a fun fair, s, or y of t o keep still. From t my success irely on ts of guinea fo a naturalist’s, point of view.
Guinea foo togeter. urbed, o every enemy for miles around, t up a raucous complaint and run extremely fast in all directions. If tuck to doing tically invulnerable, but, no—curiosity is ten t, before tance to trees to see rees tant to launco space.
s and all tions, I set out one day il I to. tone at it. tly seventy-four guinea foo trees all around me. I kney-four because I sat on a log counting t and fattest. I t tarted perceptibly, and settled back and c above its doo my feet. I tried again. it is to keep a gun barrel still became apparent to me only no I ime in to practice it. I o a nearby tree and laid t its trunk for support.
t four yards a teady long enougo s it in t fell, and I dispatc , in t . turally, assumed it on t t—t s going unnoticed—and a letter once sent to my brother.
ter, my tecantially ts. For instance, trained dog ook full pelt to, and by time I arrived, dozens of guinea focisfactorily distracting ttention from me w leisure.
A guinea fo by a yapping dog tends to surning slos perc it turns on its os a more or less stable target. tting on a lo I o lean over and pluck it off ts neck. I to a soul. ook t t ruck its beak and stunned it, and said carelessly t it sounded very like one of my brotortuous feats.
I kne , on took me into t’s see you do it.”
t yapping off after a flock of guinea foly at a bird rising into a tree, sically, “Damned bad s.” My brot once t all sport flock an end, but tinued to s.
times. My mot ty. t a duiker t ed a long s doe tage of living in a sportsman’s paradise is tedium of t) and I o say t it ogeting to kill t. But ten days more of my broto get t. I tried to defer it by saying t I c off into tly folloting bird at four or five yards. I told oo so listen. to t evening at supper. I to break it to my fat traumatic way.
t nig out spot-sing—ing . Spot-sing t unsporting, because o it t tantially on types use ts of cars; my broto forto t like a quixotic Cyclops. tice is to fix t, to tized creature and s it. My brot t ture erested but not fixed. It unity to run away.
urned from t expedition severely depressed. Apparently, y yards off. t moved. ed, but notc moved.
imes more. to arget convinced t ead, t o discuss my case s. ter my brot back to scinued to supply until one o leave for ty and ts of civilization.
My talents as er tacionso a young man e, and caused me rospection, as a result of ried to persuade me t my reluctance to join my fate eternally to of tender age; I een at time.
Among otues, ing, sing, and fis can be described only as classic. urally, eager to visit our farm, en years before, never once foot on any sing ground but a target range.
For a last t, and . I took ing, since I , of course, I pressed to o a good ess. At once, ness of no one ing birds ried. up. t more flying up into trees. none. By t time, emper. o my o do it.”
trees. e tones at trees, but t budge. I could not s. e began no second flock of birds self. I planned, if I o talk very loudly and dro. Suddenly ed, “Look! Now’s your chance!”
aridge dodged among ts of t . A small puff of . I saering, “Damn t,” I fired at random into it.
t subsided. tridge lay dead, s t, from be a y yards. I ejected tridge in an efficient sort of ance t boast.
used to t it en years since at a moving target, and so on. inued to excuse supper. My fat. I imagined t at last it came o me t it was because raged.
A good sportsman, I remembered, never puts t ood ’s a man’s day, my fat t to bring out ts in a man’s cer, and, ted, I o break off t, or attac, in t er t it is o s fauna of any kind—and I laid down my gun. ?