THE WILD TURKEY. 



Indian called and with the best rifle in hand that 

 ever white man made. The finest buck that 

 ever dashed the snow from the brush as he 

 leaped the big hurdles of a windfall is a " chump 

 show " beside it, and the sheen of those brilliant 

 wings and backs, as seen in memory alone, is far 

 more pleasant after the lapse of thirty years than 

 a wall full of the finest "trophies" that elk or 

 big-horn ever bore. The beamy chestnut and 

 glistening black and bronze, the red of dewlaps 

 and wattles with the dark fringes on the gob- 

 bler's breasts, all shone before our rising guns like 

 the splendors of some warrior host in full charge 

 upon us. 



My companion was an old hunter, and the 

 best shot in Marshall County. For twenty-two 

 I was as good a brush-shot as old New Jersey 

 generally graduates from her cat-brier swamps, 

 though not as cool and steady under all circum- 

 stances as my companion. But then it did not 

 need much skill to take in at least four. The 

 broad tails outspread like huge fans, and the great 

 flapping wings made such big marks it was im- 

 possible to miss them with even a pistol ; while 

 the buckshot in the wire cages of the cartridges 



