TURKEY SHOOTING 431 



weeping eye, through which a hazel twig had dragged, 

 and we mused on what might have been. 



" ' What on earth are you fellows doing, anyway ?' 



"We looked up, and there stood Uncle Will, giving 

 us a rather tantalizing smile, we thought, as we re- 

 membered his caution as we left the wagon. We were 

 not particularly glad to have him see us just then, as 

 we came back panting and hatless. The best we could 

 do was to tell him the straight of it, and as he was 

 an experienced hunter maybe he could help us out. 

 At the risk of being guyed, we even hinted that the 

 turkey had limped as it ran away. 



* 'Are you sure you hit it ?' he asked. 



" Think I did. I know that I tried awful hard/ 



" 'Well, step here and see what this is, and tell me 

 how it got there/ pointing to a big gobbler lying in 

 a hole which it had made in the snow when it fell. 

 How quickly I grabbed it up, admired its beauty and 

 guessed at its weight. 



" 'Here/ said Riley, 'you've got your turkey. Mine 

 has just gone over the hill, and is on the other bluff. 

 Come along, and we will get him, too/ 



"We separated, seventy-five or one hundred yards 

 apart, in order to cover more ground. We followed 

 the tracks ten minutes, when we saw the turkey rise 

 in open ground one hundred and fifty yards away. We 

 marked the direction and hurried on, found the tracks, 

 and followed briskly along the top of a broad, flat 

 ridge. We had taken only a few steps through the tall 

 grass when the turkey rose, twenty-five yards away, 



