CHAPTER II 



THE TURKEY DRIVE 



THE situation was serious enough for the two 

 boys. It was not a large fortune, but it was 

 their whole fortune, that straggled along the 

 slushy road in the shape of five hundred weary, 

 hungry turkeys, which were looking for a roosting- 

 place. 



But there was no place where they could roost, no 

 safe place, as the boys well knew, for on each side of 

 the old road stretched the forest trees, a dangerous, 

 and in the weakened condition of the turkeys, an 

 impossible roost on such a night as was coming. 



For the warm south wind had again veered to the 

 north ; the slush was beginning to grow crusty, and 

 a fine sifting of snow was slanting through the open 

 trees. Although it was still early afternoon, the 

 gloom of the night had already settled over the for- 

 est, and the turkeys, with empty crops, were peevishly 

 searching the bare trees for a roost. 



It was a strange, slow procession that they made, 

 here in the New Brunswick forest the flock of 

 five hundred turkeys, toled forward by a boy of 

 eighteen, kept in line by a well-trained shepherd-dog 

 that raced up and down the straggling column, and 



