WILD TURKEY SHOOTHSTG. 363 



knew hopping from twig to twig, always followed by 

 his less handsome mate, wooed continuously after him 

 by his clear, musical " chick-' twill-a- wee." A stick 

 cracks to my right, and the sharp sound shoots into me 

 like an arrow, causing me to start suddenly. What a 

 sight greets my vision ! There are three deer leisurely 

 walking past me, and I instinctively grasp my rifle, and 

 begin to raise it. No, no; they are does heavy with 

 young, so I remain perfectly still, as they, in absolute 

 fearlessness, ramble slowly by, stopping to examine some 

 suspicious-looking stump, or to listen to some unusual 

 sound, or to nibble the dainty buds of some vine or bush. 

 So they wander on, passing within twenty yards of me, 

 never looking at me once; and the last I see of them is 

 the swish of one' s tail, as it signals its movement 

 onward. Graceful, innocent creatures ! How can we 

 hunters have the heart to kill you ? But we have, some- 

 times. 



Humph! my right leg has become benumbed, sitting 

 so long and so still in one position, and I rise up to work 

 it about, to start the circulation. I wonder if my gobbler 

 has not taken fright by my happening to pass near him 

 as I walked through the dark woods to this place; or, if 

 some other hunter has not disturbed him; or, if my friends 

 at camp have not played a trick on me, there being no 

 gobbler at all in these woods. 



The sun is now well up, and is climbing higher and 

 higher, driving away all duskiness, spangling the polished 

 leaves of greenbrier and haw with a thousand miniature 

 suns, and making the grass at my feet fairly dazzling 

 with diamonds of dew. 



"Ah, there he is!" It is spoken quickly and audibly. 

 My heart beats harder and quicker. The object of my 

 search is in 200 yards of me. Standing like a statue, 

 I listen with that intensity peculiar to the hunter 



