THE TURKEY DRIVE 



19 





fjby. They were not the kind to let their turkeys 

 {to roost before sundown. It was a slow and solemn 



-- 



procession that moved through the woods, but it 

 -Amoved toward a goal that they had set for that 

 ^ jday's travel. 



All day, at long intervals, as they had pushed 

 ; v* along the deep forest road, the muffled rumble of 

 ^distant trains had come to them through the silence ; Q 

 ^and now, although neither of them had mentioned it, * 

 f \ they were determined to get out somewhere near the 

 ? tracks before the night and the storm should settle 

 lown upon them. Their road, hardly more here than 

 \.- a wide trail, must cross the railroad tracks, as they 

 Remembered it, not more than two or three miles 

 / ahead. 



Leaving more and more of the desolate forest be- 

 hind them with every step, they plodded doggedly 

 >n. But there was so much of the same desolate 

 brest still before them! Yet yonder, and not far 

 way, was the narrow path of the iron track through 

 ,the interminable waste ; something human the 

 ery sight of it enough to warm and cheer them. 

 They would camp to-night where they could see a 

 in go by. 



The leaden sky lowered closer upon them. The 

 storm had not yet got under full headway, but the J 

 fine icy flakes were flying faster, slanting farther, and 

 the wind was beginning to drone through the trees. 

 Without a halt, the flock moved on through the 



V-A_v^ 







**-~trs*nrf 



