by Harold Burch
We returned one evening from visiting friends and heard the chickens making a lot of noise.
Every spring my father used to get one hundred baby chicks and they were put in the brooder house, where there was a stove to keep them warm. These were the same chickens, but had grown quite large by now.
My father said there must be a skunk in
the brooder house. With that, he got his rifle, some shells, and the lantern.
He loaded the rifle and gave me the lantern. We approached the brooder house
quietly and opened the door. All we could see was two large eyes staring at
us from a corner in the back of the brooder house. We walked quietly through
the door. Then I held up the lantern so my father could see the sights of
the gun. There was a large bang as my father fired the gun. The skunk never
moved. My father removed the dead skunk. He said, "That skunk won't bother
the chickens any more."