CHAPTER XV. 



A Drove of Turkeys A fat Buck Coming to Grief Cold Work The 

 Turkeys again Skyed The flowing Bowl The big Buck "gone for" 

 Our Bill of Fare complete How it all happened Our Christmas Dinner. 



ON the evening of December 23rd, word was brought into 

 camp by one of the hands who had been looking up the 

 mules, that he had come across the tracks of some twenty- 

 five turkeys, within five or six miles of eamp. This was 

 indeed great news. Hope dawned upon us. We should 

 have the fat turkey for Christmas, at all events. 



At daylight the next day we started for the spot where 

 the turkey tracks had been seen. The snow was melted off 

 the low ground, but still lay thick on the cedar and pin on 

 ridges, and in patches on the bottoms. 



On arriving at the place we took the trail, and soon ran 

 it to a ridge-top, covered with pinon trees, on the nuts of 

 which the turkeys had been feeding. Here the tracks 

 spread in all directions, since the turkeys had wandered 

 about, each on his own hook, searching for nuts; and, to 

 double the chances of finding them, we also separated, one 

 going up, the other down the ridge ; going, too, very care- 

 fully, for wild turkeys are the most wary of all birds, and 



