288 The Turkey Family 



then something fell over me, trampled me flat, 

 and went yelling into the woods. By the time I 

 had picked myself up, a raving maniac was whirl- 

 ing something black around his head and shed- 

 ding turkey feathers with every turn. It was a 

 big, fat hen, which, coming from the unknown, 

 had chanced to alight in a tree not fifty yards 

 behind my back. We tramped on, feeling better, 

 for it was a fine bird. 



" What ye think ? " he asked two hours later, 

 when the shadows had begun to pile in the 

 thickets. My answer must have surprised him. 



We were standing at the edge of the marsh, 

 and we were both pretty well cooked. It had 

 been a hard day, and only the one bit of luck had 

 come our way. We both wanted to get home 

 that night, but Joe, good fellow as he always was, 

 had volunteered to try again next day if I so 

 desired. As he spoke, I was looking rather rue- 

 fully down the long stretch of frozen marsh. We 

 were almost at the point where the hunt had 

 begun, and with the light failing it was useless 

 to think of further work in the woods. 



Without a word in response to his question, I 

 made a leap upon the snowy ice and ran like a 

 "quarter horse" across the open. The footing 

 was fairly good, and I trusted to luck that the 

 ice was strong, for I was pounding it hard. Out 

 of the tail of one eye I kept tabs on a moving 



